Figure 1. miR-29b is increased in multiple types of muscle atrophy in vivo.

(a) A time course of mass loss in the rat medial gastrocnemius muscle was examined in denervation model (n=5 per group). (b) Denervation-induced marked muscle atrophy as determined by gastrocnemius muscle morphology (scale bar, 1 cm) and haematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining for muscle fibres (n=5 per group, scale bar, 100 μm). (c) Gastrocnemius muscle weight (GW) and gastrocnemius muscle weight/body weight (GW/BW) ratio were both reduced in denervation rats (n=5 per group). (d) qRT–PCR analysis showed increased Atrogin-1 and Murf-1 expressions in gastrocnemius muscle from denervation rats compared to controls (n=5 per group). (e) miRNA arrays showed dysregulated miRNAs in gastrocnemius muscle from denervation rat model and qRT–PCR analysis of miRNA expressions in both rat and mouse models of denervation-induced muscle atrophy (n=4 per group). (f–i) qRT–PCR analysis of miRNA expressions showed increased miR-29b in gastrocnemius muscle from dexamethasone (Dex)-, fasting-, cancer cachexia- and ageing-induced mouse muscle atrophy models (n=5 for Dex, 5 for fasting, 5 for cancer cachexia and 4 for ageing). Con, Control. Den, Denervation. Error bars, s.e.m. An unpaired, two-tailed Student's t-test was used for comparisons between two groups. *P<0.05, **P<0.01.