Summary
The long-term administration of germanium dioxide (GeO2) to rats produced Ge myopathy characterized by the formation of ragged-red fibers. The earliest pathological changes in experimental Ge myopathy were a decrease in cytochrome c oxidase activity and accumulation of high electron-dense materials in mitochondria. These findings suggest that a mitochondrial dysfunction may be most important in the genesis of experimental Ge myopathy, which could be a useful animal model for the investigation of and therapeutic trials for human mitochondrial myopathies.
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Higuchi, I., Takahashi, K., Nakahara, K. et al. Experimental germanium myopathy. Acta Neuropathol 82, 55–59 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310923
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00310923