FIG. 5.

Adenosine protects hypoxic tissues. (A) Representative H&E images of soleus muscle tissues after 10 days of culture in hypoxic conditions (scale bar=100 μm). The tissues cultured without adenosine show more damage compared with tissues treated with 5 mM adenosine, indicated by degenerated myofibers and loss of connective tissues. (B) Representative fluorescent images of tissues stained with EthD-1 (dead cells, red) and DAPI (nuclei, blue) (scale bar=200 μm). (C) Quantitative analysis on a number of dead cells expressed as a percentage of total number of cells stained with DAPI based on images in panel B. The 5 mM adenosine- treated tissues showed a significantly fewer dead cells compared with the controls (n=3, analysis of variance with Tukey's post hoc test, *p<0.005). EthD-1, ethidium homodimer-1; H&E, hematoxylin and eosin. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/tea