G.P.204: The effect of water-soluble fullerene in muscle regeneration process

Abstract

Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary disease, which cause severe muscle weakness and atrophy in clinically, and skeletal muscle degeneration and necrosis in pathology. In recent years, reducing oxidative stress is considered as one of the new treatment strategy in muscular dystrophy. Water-soluble fullerene (WF) is a good candidate to detoxify and absorb free radical. We have already revealed that fullerene has a function to promote the regeneration of skeletal muscle in this experiment. To evaluate the effectiveness of different type of WF, we chronologically evaluated the histology in rat tibial muscles during a cycle of regeneration induced by cardiotoxin injection. We used 2 types of WF, 44 hydroxyl fullerene and 9 hydroxyl fullerene with FITC. Tibial muscles of Wistar rat (8 weeks old) were injected with cardiotoxin with 2 different types of WF or without WF. The injected muscles were removed and stained H&E on 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, and 28 days after the injection. Western-blotting was performed to evaluate expression of muscle proteins, such as dystrophin, and nNOS. Average diameter of regenerate muscles 28 days after injection, WF group was bigger than those of cardiotoxin group. Average diameter of regenerate muscles 28 days after injection, fullerene-FITC was bigger than those of 44 hydroxyl fullerene group. Muscle protein expression in co-administered WF group, dystrophin and nNOS was observed in the earlier stage by Western blot than those of cardiotoxin group. WF acts protectively in experimental rat skeletal muscle regeneration process. It is possible that WF removes extracellular oxidants and suppresses inflammatory reaction. WF with smaller hydroxyl groups revealed more effective in muscle regeneration process. We believe that WF reduce oxidative stress and can be applied in the treatment of muscular dystrophy.