Figure 4.

Chronic sildenafil treatment did not impact central nucleation in the mdx diaphragm. (A) Representative images of haematoxylin and eosin-stained diaphragm muscle sections from vehicle- and sildenafil-treated wild-type (top row) and mdx (bottom row) mice. Mdx diaphragms revealed no overt differences in inflammatory cell infiltration or muscle necrosis. (B) Quantitation of the fraction of muscle fibres with centrally localized nuclei or degeneration/regeneration index. The fraction of centrally nucleated muscle cells was over 60% in mdx diaphragms compared with wild-type controls. Sildenafil treatment did not impact the degeneration/regeneration index. Scale bar = 100 μm. n = 4 for each group, with all four diaphragms from each group haematoxylin and eosin-stained and analysed for central nucleation.