Fig. 4

The effect of DEX on the kinetics of the repair phase parameters of post-injury skeletal muscle regeneration. To establish this effect, the mean numbers of muscle precursor cells (MPCs) (a, a’), myotubes (b, b’) and young myofibres (c, c’) were compared between particular time points in the BPVC-injured muscles of non-treated (control) or DEX-treated animals. The results are expressed as the mean score (± SD) from 6 sites of muscle injury derived from 3 animals (2 independent muscle injuries per single animal) per day in the control (a, b and c) and DEX (a’, b’ and c’) groups. The p-values (^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001) refer to the significant differences among all time points in the control group or DEX group