Electroacupuncture Attenuated Muscle Atrophy Induced by Hindlimb Suspension in Rats

Abstract

Preventing skeletal muscle atrophy is critical for maintaining quality of life and has been a major concern for those who experienced microgravity, aging process, neuromuscular disease, and various injuries.PURPOSETo investigate whether acupuncture and/or herb medicine can attenuate muscle atrophy induced by hindlimb suspension.METHODSThirty five female SD rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: 1) Control (CON), 2) Hindlimb Suspension (HS), 3) HS + Herb (HSH), 4) HS + Acupuncture (HSA), and 5) HS + Combination of two treatments (HSHA) (n=7 each). Huang Qi (once a day) and Electro‐Acupuncture (15 mins, 3/wks) were applied for 21 days. The data were analyzed using one‐way ANOVA with Least Significant Difference post hoc test.RESULTSHindlimb suspension induced atrophy of 36.8% in soleus muscle compared to control group. Group CON HS HSH HSA HSHA Soleus 106±13.6 67±8.4* 68±8.8* 85±8.6*#^ 91±14.7*#^ Data (mg): Mean±SD, p<0.05 from CON. p<0.05 from HS. p<0.05 from HSH Herb itself was not able to attenuate atrophy. However, muscle in HSA and HSHA were significantly higher than HS indicating that acupuncture ameliorated muscle atrophy. Also low‐field nuclear magnetic resonance measurement showed that spin‐spin T2 relaxation times were shorter after HS, then after HSA and HSHA treatments, the relaxation times were longer (recover) than HS, and similar to control group.CONCLUSIONAcupuncture could be used to prevent (or attenuate) atrophy of skeletal muscle caused by various reasons including aging, space travel, injury and neuromuscular disease.