Fig. 1.

Prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors protect skeletal muscle from exercise-induced injury. a Maximal limb force in mice before and after eccentric muscle exercise. Mice were treated with vehicle or GSK360 daily, starting 10 min after eccentric exercise. Limb force was measured for 28 days. Uninjured limb force included as a control. Data are normalized to pre-exercise force (n = 8). b Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for albumin (red), laminin (green), and nuclei (blue) in gastrocnemius muscle 3 days after eccentric exercise (n = 4/group). Upper panels: low power images of full cross section of gastrocnemius. Lower panels: higher magnifications of the rectangular areas above (scale bars = 250 μM). Arrows: albumin-positive myofibers. Asterisks: albumin-negative fibers. c Quantification of albumin-positive fibers measured as a proportion of total fibers (n = 4/group). d Maximal limb force in mice before and after eccentric muscle damage. Mice were treated daily with vehicle or GSK360 24 h before, at the time of injury, or 24 h after eccentric exercise. Limb force was measures for 8 days (n = 8). Data shown as the mean ± SEM. Two-way ANOVA followed by Holm-Sidak’s test corrected for multiple comparisons; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 versus vehicle-dosed cohort (unless otherwise indicated)