FIG. 4.

Histological and morphological analysis of the vastus lateralis muscle after contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) with or without treatment. (A) Representative cross-section through the body of the vastus lateralis muscle from a sham animal stained with Milligan's trichrome stain. Weights (B) and cross-sectional fiber areas (C) of the vastus lateralis muscles in sham animals and injured animals that were either untreated (SCI+vehicle) or treated with arachidonyl trifluoromethyl ketone (ATK; SCI+ATK). After contusion injury, both the weight and fiber size of the vastus lateralis muscle in untreated animals were reduced over 20%. Treatment with ATK attenuated reductions in weight, but not fiber area. Bar heights represent means±standard error of the mean. *Significantly different from sham animals. Scale bar, 100 μm.