<i>P2RX7</i> ablation reduces the pathology in 20-mo-old tibialis anterior muscles.

<p>(A) Representative Western blots (left) confirming P2RX7 protein expression in 20-mo-old TA and illustrating decreased autophagy (LC3I to LC3II shift), with the results in the graph showing lower levels of LC3II relative to GAPDH in TA from 20-mo-old Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− compared to <i>mdx</i> mice (<i>t</i>-test, <i>t</i> = 3.74, df = 10, <i>p</i> = 0.004). Total protein staining is shown to illustrate the equal protein loading. (B) Representative ImageJ output masks from morphometric analyses of TA fibers (left) and graphs showing representative results (right and bottom). While no differences were found in the proportion of C/N fibers or the average minimum Feret diameter of total or C/N fibers (<i>t</i>-test, <i>t</i> = 0.57, df = 8, <i>p</i> = 0.586; <i>t</i> = 2.04, df = 8, <i>p</i> = 0.076; <i>t</i> = 1.25, df = 8, <i>p</i> = 0.248, respectively), there was a significant increase in the minimum Feret diameter of non-C/N fibers in <i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− compared to <i>mdx</i> muscles (<i>t</i>-test, <i>t</i> = 2.58, df = 8, <i>p</i> = 0.032). *<i>p <</i> 0.05, **<i>p <</i> 0.005.