Cardiovascular Collapse/Methamphetamine Fatality Figure 6. Methamphetamine induced bioenergetics failure in RVLM. (A). Fold changes relative to sham-control group in the level of ATP, ADP or ADP/ATP ratio in samples collected from RVLM of rats that died of METH (24 mg/kg, i.v.) or survived with pretreatment by microinjection of Mito-TEMPO (500 pmol) or coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10; 7 nmol) into RVLM prior to METH administration. Values are mean 6 SEM, n = 3–5 animals per experimental group. *P,0.05 versus Vehicle+Saline group, and #P,0.05 versus Vehicle+METH group in the post hoc Scheffe´ multiple-range test. (B). Representative laser scanning confocal microscopic images superimposed on phase contrast images showing neurons in RVLM that were immunoreactive to propidium iodide in rats that received saline (B1), died of METH (24 mg/kg, i.v.; B2), or survived with pretreatment by microinjection of CoQ10 (7 nmol; B3) or IM-54 (3 pmol; B4) into bilateral RVLM prior to METH administration. These results are typical of 4 animals from each experimental group. Scale bar, 100 mm. NA, nucleus ambiguus. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030589.g006 PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 9 January 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 1 | e30589