Exercise Combined with Rhodiola sacra Supplementation Improves Exercise Capacity and Ameliorates Exhaustive Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage through Enhancement of Mitochondrial Quality Control

Figure 6

Effects of aerobic exercise and Rhodiola sacra supplementation, alone and combined, on skeletal and cardiac muscle damage caused by exhaustive exercise-induced stress; serum creatine kinase activity (a) and transmission electron micrograph of skeletal (b) and cardiac (c) muscles in mice exhausted from exercise; R: rest; EE: exhaustive exercise; Con-Rest: control-rest; Con-EE: control-exhaustive exercise; P-EE: placebo-exhaustive exercise; AE-EE: aerobic exercise-exhaustive exercise; RS-EE: Rhodiola sacra-exhaustive exercise; AE + RS-EE: aerobic exercise combined with Rhodiola sacra-exhaustive exercise. TEM image shows damaged myofiber or mitochondria (red arrow); AV: autophagic vacuole; m: mitochondria; tM: thin myofilament; TM: thick myofilament; scale bar = 1 or 2 μm; ^@@ versus Con-N, , versus Con-EE, ^#, ^## versus P-EE; mice.

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