General growth characterization of mstnb-deficient zebrafish. (A) Wild-type zebrafish (top panel) and mstnb-deficient zebrafish (bottom panel) both at 100 dpf. (B) Curves of the somatic growth of mstnb-deficient zebrafish and wild-type control from the juvenile stage to the adult stage. (C) Dry weight of mstnb−/− and wild-type zebrafish at 120 dpf stage. * and ** indicate significant differences at (P < 0.05) and very significant differences at (P < 0.01), respectively. Up to 55 individuals of mstnb-deficient zebrafish and 50 individuals of wild-type control were checked in the experiments and the data were consistent.

General characterization of the muscle tissues of mstnb-deficient zebrafish. (A) Paraffin section and H&E staining of mstnb-deficient zebrafish (A3, A4) and wild-type control fish (A1, A2). Lower magnification images are shown in A1 and A3; higher magnification of the indicated regions of A1 and A3 are shown in A2 and A4. (B) The distribution of muscle numbers are according to theirs sizes. The Y-axis indicates the numbers of muscle fibers at certain cross areas (μm²) of <100, 100–250, 250–450, and >450. The dotted rectangles in A1 and A3 define the areas for analysis. (C) The total fiber number of mstnb−/− and mstnb+/+ zebrafish sections. (D) The diagram shows the total area of muscle tissue in the body cross-section. (E) Western blot analysis of slow myofiber-specific protein S58 from muscle tissue of mstnb+/+ (left panel) and mstnb−/− (right panel). GAPDH protein was used as an internal control. (F) The western blot analysis was quantified by gray value analysis using Image J software. (G) Transcriptional expression levels of myogenesis genes. * indicate significant differences at (P < 0.05).

General features of glucose utilization and fat distribution in mstnb-deficient zebrafish. (A) The dynamic serum glucose levels of zebrafish after a chow diet. The solid line represents wild-type control zebrafish, and the dotted line represents mstnb-deficient zebrafish. (B) Representative fluorescent image of adipose tissue of a wild-type control zebrafish (upper panel) and an mstnb-deficient zebrafish (lower panel) at the adult stage (90 dpf) stained with Nile red under an excitation wave length of 470 nm. A marked decrease in the intensity of the subcutaneous adipose tissue staining (indicated by dotted curve) was observed in the mstnb-deficient adults (bottom panel) compared with the wild-type control fish (upper panel). (C) The quantification analysis of fluorescence intensity of Nile Red staining using Image J software. (D) No significant difference in body fat ratio (total fat/body weight) was observed between mstnb-deficient and wild-type control zebrafish. (E) TG content analysis of skeletal muscle indicated elevated accumulation of TG. Five pairs of zebrafish were used for analysis. The skeletal muscle tissue was dissected in the same position, and the muscle tissue was weighed. (F) Increased fat accumulation in the muscle tissue of mstnb-deficient zebrafish compared with wild-type control fish. Diagram on the left panel shows the location of muscle tissue for cross-cryosectioning and Oil red O staining of muscle tissue from adult zebrafish in the right panel. D, dorsal side; V, ventral side.

ZFIN is incorporating published figure images and captions as part of an ongoing project. Figures from some publications have not yet been curated, or are not available for display because of copyright restrictions.