Table 3– Effect of rehabilitation on muscle fibre morphological characteristics and on the mRNA expression of anabolic and catabolic factors

	Non-cachectic^#			Cachectic^¶
	Pre	Post	% change	Pre	Post	% change
Muscle fibre %
Type I	32.0±3.2	38.7±3.5⁺	6.6±2.3	33.6±2.9	30.0±6.6	-3.4±3.6*
Type IIa	52.3±3.7	51.1±3.9⁺	-1.1±2.3	50.4±6.5	58.0±5.3⁺	9.6±2.8*
Type IIb	15.2±2.2	9.3±1.4⁺	-5.9±1.3	15.5±3.6	11.9±3.6⁺	-5.4±2.1
Mean fibre cross sectional area	4509±198	4947±227⁺	10.9±1.7	3872±258*	4136±296⁺	7.3±1.7
Cross sectional area μm²
Type I	4716±271	5398 ±315⁺	16.4±4.8	4717±215	4796±152	3.1±4.5*
Type IIa	4507±247	4954±251	11.4±3.5	3695±337*	4091±377⁺	12.1±3.2
Type IIb	3649±208	3976±176⁺	11.6±4.3	2872±250*	3224±388⁺	12.1±3.9
Capillary/fibre ratio	1.41±0.1	1.70±0.1⁺	20.3±4.1	1.44±0.1	1.61±0.1⁺	12.1±3.4
mRNA IGF-I/GAPDH expression	0.72±0.11	1.29±0.14⁺	79±3	0.41±0.09	0.77±0.10⁺	88±11
mRNA MGF/GAPDH expression	0.82±0.14	1.21±0.13⁺	47±10	1.18±0.31	2.24±0.71⁺	90±29*
mRNA MyoD/GAPDH expression	1.30±2.83	2.20±4.16⁺	69±17	3.10±1.1	2.20±8.7	-29±6*
mRNA Myost/GAPDH expression	2.37±0.48	1.78±0.44⁺	-25±11	2.02±0.48	1.96±0.27	-3±4*
mRNA TNF-α/GAPDH expression	0.91±0.27	0.62±0.17	-32±37	1.52±0.42	1.45±0.55⁺	-5±31*

Data are presented as mean±sem. All mRNA data were normalised against glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) number of copies, which were neither significantly different nor affected by exercise training in either of the two groups. IGF-I: insulin-like growth factor-I; MGF: mechano-growth factor; MyoD: myogenic differentiation factor D; Myost: myostatin; TNF-α: tumour necrosis factor-α. ^#: n = 19; ^¶: n = 10. *: p<0.05 compared to non-cachectic; ⁺: p<0.05 within-group differences.