![]() In both cases, this fatal myopathy leads to continuous cycles of degeneration and regeneration, resulting in high heterogeneity in fiber size and distribution as well as an increase in centrally nucleated fibers (CNFs). The dystrophin-deficient mouse (C57BL/10ScSn- DMD mdx/J), referred to as mdx mouse, represents the most frequently used animal model to study DMD, although the pathology is less severe in this animal compared to DMD patients. DMD is a lethal X-linked recessive disease that affects approximately 1/3500 boys and is caused by different mutations in the dystrophin gene, leading to the loss of the functional protein, which is crucial for the proper structure and stability of myofibers. These exceptional adaptive features of adult skeletal muscle are reduced or even compromised in conditions such as aging and atrophy or in genetic myopathies, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Skeletal muscle is a highly dynamic and plastic organ, able to respond to environmental changes and characterized by complete functional recovery upon perturbations such as endurance exercise, overload or muscle injury. These findings should simplify and shorten the time needed for the quantification of muscle histological properties, avoiding challenging manual procedures. Collectively, we developed reliable and easy-to-use pipelines that automatically measure parameters of muscle histology, useful for research in myobiology. Finally, for extracellular matrix quantification, we used Sirius red staining. Specifically, we quantified the minimum Feret diameter, centrally nucleated fibers and the number of macrophages, starting from multiple images. Our pipelines consist of running image-processing modules in CellProfiler with the aim of quantifying different histopathological muscle hallmarks in mdx mice compared to their wild-type littermates. Here, we describe a simple automatized computational approach to quantify muscle parameters with specific pipelines to be run by CellProfiler software in an open-source and well-defined fashion. Indeed, non-automatic methods are time-consuming and prone to error. A well-defined and standardized approach for histological and morphometric analysis of muscle samples is necessary in order to measure and quantify specific regenerative parameters in myopathies. DMD is characterized by different features, such as continuous cycles of degeneration/regeneration, fiber heterogeneity, chronic inflammation and fibrosis. Adult skeletal muscle is capable of active and efficient differentiation in the event of injury in both physiological and pathological conditions, such as in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). ![]()
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