I know people have used a variety of circulating markers (CK, LDH, Myoglobin, methylhistidine, serum troponin) and in-vivo dyes (Evans blue, dextran) but is there a way I can do it on frozen tissues of exercised mice ?
I think the answer is "no", particularly if the muscles were not frozen in preparation for cryosectioning. If the muscles were prepared for cryosectioning, you might try some sort of marker suggestive of loss of membrane integrity (e.g., loss of or altered staining for dystrophin or laminin).
Thanks Gordon, I realize I need to collect plasma and do histology to get my answers.
Sean, I think the mitochondrial plugging also occurs in inter-myofibriller region after eccentric exercise, also the perinuclear clustering would also show up under sarcolemma (since most nuclei are there), so I am not sure how good a marker that can be. I would love to listen more on that but would probably go with Evans Blue and plasma collection for time being. :)
I agree with Gordon. There is no way you can accurately access any info about sarcolemma damage once you are out of "in vivo" range. All markers and dyes you mention above are good, depends what do you want to see, but my favorites are: CK and EBD. You can compare exercised vs non-exercised animals to asses the damage level. Also, when you collect blood (use method you are comfortable with), make sure you separate serum from RBC. Hemolysis (even small one) will cause your CK levels increase significantly. Make sure serum is transparent and clear. EBD might be less troubling.
This is not a super easy procedure, but we have done this quite a bit in frozen sections my immunolabeling naturally occurring circulating proteins such as fibronectin. You have to work out the details but could probably do that in some control experiments. Check out my paper with Jan Fridén on this topic: Fridén, J., R.L. Lieber, and L-E Thornell. (1991). Subtle indications of muscle damage following eccentric contractions. Acta Physiol. Scand. 142:523-524. PMID1835250