Oxygen enhances fusion of cultured chick embryo myoblasts.

Fusion of mononucleate myoblasts to form multinucleated myotubes increases when skeletal muscle cells are grown in progressively higher oxygen concentrations (5%, 20%, and 40% oxygen). At four days of growth fusion of myoblasts (as expressed by the percent of all muscle nuclei that are located in myotubes) is 57 +/- 2% in 5% oxygen, 68 +/- 1% in 20% oxygen, and 78 +/- 2% in 40% oxygen (P less than 0.001).

Cardiac cellular responses to altered nutrition in the neonatal rat.

Rats reared in litters of 18, 12, and 6 to determine whether preweanling nutritional state would alter rates of cardiac cell division, weighed 31.7, 39.1, 48.

Effects of hypoxia on cardiac growth in neonatal rat.

To determine whether low oxygen environments enhance cardiac cell division in the neonatal period, newborn rat pups were reared for 21 days in 12-15% oxygen. Left ventricle and right ventricle weights were 30 and 180% greater than controls matched for body weight (P less than 0.001) as were left ventricle/body weight ratios (3.