Modelling Skeletal Muscle Ageing and Repair In Vitro

Figure 3

Aged muscle cells show reduced myotube diameter and fusion index after chemical insult with BaCl₂. Immunofluorescence images showing recovery timepoints after BaCl₂-induced injury in mouse C2C12 and young- and old-derived human myoblasts. Immunostaining for F-actin (red, phalloidin) and nuclei (blue, DAPI) show removal of myotubes but preserved precursor cells in response to chemical injury (a). Myotube diameter recovered to preinjury (CTRL) size in young and mouse C2C12, but remained significantly smaller in myotubes from older donors (n = 3, unpaired t-test. ) (b). Myogenic fusion index was significantly smaller in aged myotubes, but not in mouse C2C12 and young cells at the end of the regeneration period from the baseline (n = 3; unpaired t-test;) (c) (all error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM); scale bars 100 μm; circles indicate individual data points of technical replicates).

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