Fig. 7.

Myocyte architecture undergoes changes under hypobaric hypoxia exposure. Light micrographs showing hematoxylin-eosin staining of muscle; arrows indicate the area of maximal damage. a Control muscle cut in cross section has normal morphology with peripheral nuclei and abundant myofibrils within individual muscle fibers evenly separated by the extracellular space. b The 6-h HH-exposed rat muscle showing smaller in size with more space between myocytes (indicated by black arrow). c The 12-h HH-exposed rat muscle showing more space between myocytes; along with this, irregularity was also observed in myocytes (indicated by left-pointing white arrow). d Rat muscle exposed with 24-h HH exposure illustrated degeneration of muscle fibers (indicated by white triangle). The scale bar at the bottom represents 10 μm (a–d)