Fig. 8

Muscle strength and bile acids correlate with mitochondrial alterations in a mouse model of cholestasis-induced sarcopenia. C57BL/6 mice were fed with a chow or a DDC-supplemented diet for 6 weeks. After the treatment, the TA muscles were excised and homogenized to evaluate (a) TOM20 and (c) I, II, III, and IV mitochondrial OXPHOS complexes protein levels by Western blot using β-actin levels as the loading control. Molecular weight markers are depicted in kDa. The quantitative value analysis is expressed as a fold of change for TOM20 (b) and OXPHOS complexes (d) compared to chow diet animals. e The basal, ATP-linked, H⁺-leak, maximal, and spare OCR of isolated EDL muscle fibers was evaluated with seahorse XF Cell Mito Stress as described in the Materials and Methods section. The values correspond to the mean ± SEM (n = 5–7 animals per condition, *p < 0.05 vs chow diet. t-test). f Heatmap of Pearson correlation for bile acids levels, strength, OXPHOS complexes, ORC basal, and ORC ATP represent the relation among different variables