Figure 4.

Obestatin Increases Engraftment Capacity of Human Myoblasts In Vivo

(A, left panels) Representative sections stained for Lamin A/C after intramuscular injection of obestatin (300 nmol/kg body weight/24 hr during 5 days; n = 5 per group) or control (DMEM) at 21 days following human myoblast transplantation. (A, right panels) Analysis of the number of myofibers containing nuclei expressing Lamin A/C⁺ cells and the number of incorporated human cells into regenerated muscle fibers is shown at 21 days following cell transplantation. (B) Left panels show representative sections stained for human-specific spectrin and Lamin A/C at 21 days following human myoblast transplantation. Right panels show the analysis of spectrin⁺ fibers and cross-sectional area of total, spectrin⁻, and spectrin⁺ fibers at 21 days following cell transplantation. (C) The frequency distribution of the spectrin⁺ fiber cross-sectional area was evaluated 21 days following human myoblast transplantation. (A and B) Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 5 per group). *p < 0.05 versus control values.