Figure 4.

BCAAem administration increases eNOS, ERα and VEGF levels in dystrophic muscle tissue of mdx mice. Cropped image of a representative western blot showing the expression of the ERα, eNOS, VEGF and vinculin proteins in VM and TA muscle tissues of and untreated male and female mdx mice (representative VM and TA samples of two BCAAem-treated males and two BCAAem-treated females and one representative VM sample of untreated mice of each sex are shown). Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S9. (a) Densitometric analyses are shown as the ERα/vinculin ratio, eNOS/vinculin ratio and VEGF/vinculin ratio. (b) Cropped image of a representative western blot (c) and densitometric analysis (d) of p-eNOS and vinculin proteins VM and TA muscle tissues of BCAAem-treated and untreated in male and female mdx mice. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S10. VM muscle of an untreated mdx mouse was used as a control. Data are shown as p-eNOS/vinculin ratios. All these experiments were performed three times. All data are presented as the mean ± s.e.m. Statistical error analysis was performed by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 indicate comparisons that reflect significant differences relative to the untreated group.