Fig. 4

Differential expression of genes in gastrocnemius. a Volcano plots were constructed using fold change values and adjusted p-values. The vertical lines corresponded to 2.0-fold up- and downregulation between the normal and atrophy groups, and the horizontal line represented the adjusted P-value = 0.05. The red and green point in the plot represented the differentially expressed genes showing statistical significance. The arrows indicated HMGB1. b Hierarchical cluster analysis of the significantly upregulated and downregulated genes (|log₂(fold_change)| > 2 and adjusted p-value < 0.05). Each column represented a sample and each row represented a gene. The expression levels were presented in different colors indicating expression levels above and below the median expression level across all samples. c Western blot analysis was performed to verify the RNA-Seq results of HMGB1 in gastrocnemius of contralateral side and denervation side. *P < 0.05 vs contralateral side. Den, denervation; Con, control