Skeletal muscles of hibernating black bears show minimal atrophy and phenotype shifting despite prolonged physical inactivity and starvation
Fig 1
Alteration of Muscle Fiber Cross-Sectional Areas: Pre-Hibernation vs. Post-Hibernation.
Fiber cross-sectional areas (CSAs) were significantly decreased following hibernation. The sartorius muscle was collected from bear legs both at pre-hibernation (late November) and post-hibernation (early April). Due to the limitation of animal availability, different individual bears were used at each time point (N = 3 in each group). (A) Typical images of cross sections with Hematoxylin-Eosin staining and immunohistochemistry (dystrophin localization) are shown. The scale bar shows 100 μm. (B) The mean size of the fibers was obtained for each individual sample followed by the calculation of group data. Data are expressed as mean ± standard error. Significant differences: #, p < 0.05.