Abstract
Structural changes in rat skeletal muscle induced by swimming to exhaustion were investigated by light and electron microscopy. Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups: a 28°C swimming groups, a 42°C swimming group, and non-swimming control groups at each of these temperatures. The experimental animals were tested in water for 32 min. Immediately after the swimming test, under pentobarbital intravenous anesthesia, the extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) and the soleus muscle (SOL) of each animal were removed from the right hindleg. Light microscopy revealed structural changes such as atrophy and focal necrosis in both muscles in animals swimming at 28 and 42°C. In some animals swimming at 42°C, an inflammatory reaction was noted around severely necrotic lesions in the EDL. A few structural changes indicative of mild atrophy were observed in the control animals. Electron microscopy revealed swelling of the sarcoplasm, swelling of the mitochondria, and disorganization or disappearance of myofilaments in various degrees in the atrophic and focal necrotic muscles of the animals swimming at 28 and 42°C. The degree of these structural changes in skeletal muscle fibers was more conspicuous in the animals swimming at 42°C than at 28°C, and more marked in the EDL than in the SOL.
Published Version
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