Enzyme Activities and Histochemical Changes in the Hind Limb Muscle of the Mouse Treated with 6-Aminonicotinamide

We investigated enzyme activity and histochemical changes in hind limb of mouse treated with 6-aminonicotinamide (6-AN). The activity of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and creatine phosphokinase in 6-AN treated group were significantly higher than those of the control and pair-fed groups. Also, the activity of lactic dehydrogenase in 6-AN treated group was the highest among the three groups, whereas that of the pair-fed group were higher than that of the control group. In the 6-AN treated group, oxidative histochemical stains, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide reductase (NADH), succinyl dehydrogenase (SDH) showed increased scattered fibers in 6-AN treated subsarcolemma. Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) stain showed decreased up to 85% in 6-AN treated fibers. These results demonstrate that 6-AN antagonizes cell metabolism and induces the morphological deformity like the other mitochondrial muscle diseases. Therefore, we suppose that these data would be useful indexes for disclosing the mechanism of mitochondrial muscle disease.