Masson’s trichrome staining.

Representative microscophs show collagen with blue staining and the muscle with purple staining (magnification 20×). Bar graphs show the quantitative image analysis. Results are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean. (A) untreated for 1 week; (B) tempol-treated for 1 week; (C) untreated for 3 weeks; (D) tempol-treated for 3 wks; (E) sham; *P†P<0.05 versus untreated group in the same period (Mann-Whitney U test).