P2RX7 ablation reduces <i>mdx</i> mouse muscle pathology.

<p>The color-coding legend applies to all graphs in the figure. (A) Collagen type-IV (green) and nuclei (blue) immunofluorescence with an accompanying frequency histogram (B) of the minimum Feret diameter of C/N fibers from 4-wk-old <i>mdx</i> and Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− mice showing the right shift in TA muscle fiber size corresponding with the greater average Feret diameter of Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− fibers (<i>t</i>-test, <i>t</i> = 6.99, df = 6, <i>p</i> < 0.001). (C) Elevated myogenin levels (average Western blot values) in both Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− and G-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− muscle (ANOVA, <i>F</i> = 33.38, df = 2, <i>n</i> = 4, 3, 4, <i>p <</i> 0.001; Tukey’s test, G-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− versus <i>mdx</i>, <i>p</i> < 0.001; G-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− versus Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/−, <i>p</i> = 0.516; Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− versus <i>mdx</i>, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and (D) significantly lower average serum CK levels in Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− compared to <i>mdx</i> muscle (Mann-Whitney U test, <i>W</i> = 388, <i>n</i> = 18, 16, <i>p</i> = 0.012; permutation analysis, <i>F</i> = 7.07, <i>p</i> = 0.013; log₁₀ serum CK ANOVA, <i>F</i> = 3.76, df = 2, <i>n</i> = 19, 18, 16, <i>p</i> = 0.030; Tukey’s test, Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− versus <i>mdx</i>, <i>p</i> = 0.025). (E) Example immunofluorescence micrographs of IgG penetration into muscle fibers and (F) chart showing reduced average IgG influx into Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− muscle (ANOVA, <i>F</i> = 5.52, df = 2, <i>n</i> = 3, 5, 3, <i>p</i> = 0.031; Tukey’s test, Pf-<i>mdx</i>/P2X7^−/− versus <i>mdx</i>, <i>p</i> = 0.032). *<i>p <</i> 0.05, ***<i>p <</i> 0.001.