Figure 3.

No evidence of sex-related effects of MitoQ administration on CLP sepsis-induced diaphragm weakness. A: diaphragm mean force-frequency curves in response to direct muscle stimulation for muscles taken from female animals in the four experimental groups (n = 3 animals/group). B: diaphragm force over time during repetitive contraction trials for muscles from female animals. Similar to results from studies in male animals (shown in Figs. 1 and 2), CLP sepsis induced large reductions in diaphragm specific force generation compared with controls as well as force during repetitive contraction trials in female animals. MitoQ prevented CLP-induced reductions in diaphragm force-frequency relationships (P < 0.04 for all frequencies) and loss of force during repetitive contraction trials (P < 0.01 for all time points). The effects of both CLP and MitoQ administration on diaphragm function in female mice were comparable to that observed in male mice, suggesting there were no sex effects in these studies. Data are presented as mean values with error bars representing 1 standard error of the mean. ANOVA was used to compare variables across groups treated with different agents; *statistical significance. CLP, cecal ligation puncture; MitoQ, mitoquinone mesylate.