Abstract
This study reports our experience in developing a simple, minor injury. After reviewing the literature, a ‘drop-mass’ method was selected where a 201 g, elongated oval-shaped weight was dropped up to 15 times through a 1 m tube onto the left vastus lateralis of New Zealand white rabbits. To determine the extent of injury and degree of healing, biopsies were obtained six days after injury from the healing vastus lateralis of each animal. The tissue was fixed in formal saline, embedded in wax, cut and stained with haematoxylin and eosin (HE) and phosphotungstic acid haematoxylin (PTAH) and examined by light microscopy (LM). The ‘optimal’ injury was created after seven drops, where quite severe, mild and moderately severe trauma was caused to muscle in the juxta-bone, mid and sub-dermal regions respectively. In each region, the muscle exhibited features of healing six days after injury. The ‘drop-mass’ technique appears to cause a contusion within a single muscle of at least three degrees of severity. This previously unreported observation is of particular importance to other researchers wishing to investigate contusion injury in other animal models.
Highlights
The authors investigated the effect that two physiotherapeutic modalities, deep transverse friction and compressed air massage have on myofibres and capillaries of healthy, untraumatised vastus lateralis muscle of rabbits (Deane, Gregory & Mars 2002; Gregory & Mars 2003) and tibialis anterior muscle of monkeys (Gregory & Mars 2005)
Downhill running was considered by Armstrong, Ogilvie and Schwane (1983) to cause injury because the antigravity muscles would be stressed from eccentric contractions
The aim of this study is to report the development of a reversible, potentially measurable, contusion injury in adult rabbit vastus lateralis muscle
Summary
The authors investigated the effect that two physiotherapeutic modalities, deep transverse friction and compressed air massage have on myofibres and capillaries of healthy, untraumatised vastus lateralis muscle of rabbits (Deane, Gregory & Mars 2002; Gregory & Mars 2003) and tibialis anterior muscle of monkeys (Gregory & Mars 2005). In order to investigate how and/or whether these modalities influence healing, it was necessary to create a relatively minor injury that would be in a particular and reproducible stage of healing within a short period of time during the healing process. Such an injury should not cause unnecessary pain or discomfort to the study animal, be measurable at the termination of the experimental healing period, and comparable with similar uninjured and untreated tissue over the same period of time. Super-contraction induced injuries are a consequence of strenuous exercise or high-force eccentric contractions They are achieved by forcing animals to run on motorised treadmills or by electrical stimulation of muscle. Exercise induced injury may cause stress to the animal with concomitant endocrine and biochemical changes that may affect biochemical and or morphological parameters being measured
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