Several candidate measures, such as fiber numbers, mean fiber length, fiber density, and mean fraction anisotropy can be selected as the connectivity measure [9], [31], [80].
Several candidate measures, such as fiber numbers, mean fiber length, fiber density, and mean fraction anisotropy, can be selected as the connectivity measure [ 25, 38, 39, 93].
As shown in Table 2 and Figure 2c, total fiber number and mean fiber diameter were increased by about 48% and 19%, respectively, in Mstn−/− mice compared to wild type mice.
Similarly, both muscle fiber number and mean fiber diameter were increased in the gastrocnemius/plantaris muscles of mice homozygous for the D76A point mutation, although the effects seen in MstnD76A/D76A mice appeared to be slightly lower than those seen in Mstn−/− mice (Table 2 and Figure 2b).
From these measurements the mean fiber density (by dividing the number of myelinated fibers within the circular frames by the areas of the circular frames, fibers/mm) and the total number of nerve fibers (by multiplying the mean fiber density with the total cross-sectional area of the whole nerve) were estimated.
Mean fiber density was then calculated by dividing the total number of fibers within the sampling field (N) by its area (N/mm).
The total capillary number per area was divided by the total fiber number per area and expressed as the mean C/F ratio for each muscle.
The total number of fibers was estimated by multiplying the mean fiber density by the total cross-sectional area of the whole nerve cross section which was measured in the light microscopic analysis.
As shown in Table 2 and Figure 2b, total fiber number was increased by 48% in Mstn−/− mice compared to wild type mice, and mean fiber diameter at the widest point of the muscles was increased by 16%, which would be predicted to result in an approximately 34% increase in cross-sectional area.
Fiber measurements were carried out on 250 fibers per animal, and mean fiber diameters were calculated for each animal.
