Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of the flavonoid quercetin (3,3´,4´,5,7-pentahydroxyflavone) in a mice model of intense acute swimming-induced muscle pain, which resembles delayed onset muscle soreness. Quercetin intraperitoneal (i.p.) treatment dose-dependently reduced muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Quercetin inhibited myeloperoxidase (MPO) and N-acetyl-β-D- glucosaminidase (NAG) activities, cytokine production, oxidative stress, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and gp91phox mRNA expression and muscle injury (creatinine kinase [CK] blood levels and myoblast determination protein [MyoD] mRNA expression) as well as inhibited NFκB activation and induced Nrf2 and HO-1 mRNA expression in the soleus muscle. Beyond inhibiting those peripheral effects, quercetin also inhibited spinal cord cytokine production, oxidative stress and glial cells activation (glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP] and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 [Iba-1] mRNA expression). Concluding, the present data demonstrate that quercetin is a potential molecule for the treatment of muscle pain conditions related to unaccustomed exercise.
Highlights
MethodsThe experiments were performed on male Swiss mice, weighing between 20-25g from State University of Londrina, PR, Brazil
The growing recognition of the benefits of physical activities in human health highlights exercises as an essential conduit for rehabilitation programs in a wide variety of chronic inflammatory diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart diseases, diabetes, rheumatoidPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0162267 September 1, 2016Quercetin Reduces Exercise-Induced Muscle Pain
Quercetin treatment inhibits intense acute swimming-induced muscle mechanical hyperalgesia in a dose-dependent manner, and does not affect glucose levels, time spent in swimming behavior or immobility behavior during the intense acute swimming session
Summary
The experiments were performed on male Swiss mice, weighing between 20-25g from State University of Londrina, PR, Brazil. Mice were maintained in the vivarium of the Department of Pathological Science of State University of Londrina for at least two days before the experiments. Mice were used only once and were acclimatized to the testing room at least 1 hour before the experiments, which was conducted during the light cycle. At the end of experiments, mice were anesthetized with isoflurane 3% to minimize suffering (Abbott Park, IL, USA) and terminally killed by cervical dislocation followed by decapitation. Animals’ care and handling procedures were in accordance with the International Association for Study of Pain (IASP) guidelines and were approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee for Animal Research of State University of Londrina under the process number 13279.2011.76. All efforts were made to minimize the number of animals used and their suffering
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