Dr. Kevin Zwetsloot's laboratory investigates the mechanisms responsible for sarcopenia (the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength) and skeletal muscle repair/regeneration after injury. His laboratory seeks to develop exercise and/or nutritional interventions for the treatment/prevention of sarcopenia and enhanced recovery of skeletal muscle from damage. Additionally, his laboratory investigates the role of exercise on the gut microbiome. Currently, Dr. Zwetsloot's laboratory is assessing if natural plant steroids, called phytoedysteroids, enhance skeletal muscle function in response to exercise and recovery from injury. One component of these investigations is measuring skeletal muscle fiber cross-sectional area and fiber type using immunohistochemistry and fluorescent microscopy. Pictures show fluorescent images of Soleus and Plantaris muscles from C57BL/6 mice captured on the Zeiss LSM 880 in the Dewel Microscopy Facility.
Figure Legend: Representative images of Soleus (top) and Plantaris (bottom) skeletal muscle sections detecting Myosin Heavy Chain Type I (red), Type IIa (magenta), Type IIx (unstained/black), or Type IIb (green) fibers, with cross-sectional area measured using Laminin (blue).
