Chapter 23 - Oxidative stress in muscular atrophy

Abstract

This chapter discusses the enhanced oxidative stress in the course of the disuse of muscular atrophy and explains its mechanism from the view of cell biology and its role in muscular atrophy. The recovery from muscular atrophy is also accompanied by oxidative stress. In the skeletal muscle atrophied by denervation, the increased activities of some antioxidant enzymes suggest the possibility of enhanced oxidative stress. The production of free radicals in the mitochondria has been investigated more as compared to those in other organelles, and it has played a major role in the oxidative stress of the cell. The increase of muscular activity enhances the oxygen consumption, which accelerates the production of free radicals in the mitochondria. Without the consideration of the production of free radicals in the cytoplasm, the oxidative stress in the muscle might parallel the muscular activity; that is, the oxidative stress might decrease in the muscular atrophy. The chapter discusses oxidative stress in skeletal muscle atrophied by immobilization, mechanism of oxidative stress in atrophied muscle, role of oxidative stress in muscular atrophy, and oxidative stress during recovery from muscular atrophy. Oxygen consumption is expected to increase in the recovering muscle. The chapter also elaborates the oxidative stress in other muscular diseases.