The effect of Micro-current electrical stimulation on muscle atrophy caused by sciatic nerve compression

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of micro-current stimulation on muscle atrophy caused by sciatic nerve compression. To investigate the effects of micro-current stimulation on muscle atrophy, thirty 5-week-old Sprague Dawley rat were used and assigned to three groups including the control group (CON, $\mathrm{n}=10$ ), the Sciatic Nerve Injury group (SNI, $\mathrm{n}=10$ ), the Sciatic Nerve Injury and treated with Micro-current Electrical stimulation group ( $\mathrm{SNI}+\mathrm{MET}, \mathrm{n}=10$ ). All of the animals in $\mathrm{SNI}+\mathrm{MET}$ received 50uA of micro-current electrical stimulation for 4 weeks while animals in SNI received no stimulation. In order to measure the changes of the muscle volume and assess biological mechanism of muscle regeneration for 4 weeks, In-vivo Micro-CT and Western Blot data were analyzed. As a result, in the case of Micro-CT analysis, the SNI and $\mathrm{SNI}+\mathrm{MET}$ groups compared to the CON group showed a significant decrease in the muscle volume after 2 weeks, confirming the atrophy caused by the sciatic nerve compression. However, there was no significant difference between SNI and $\mathrm{SNI}+\mathrm{MET}$ group after applying 4 weeks of micro-current electrical stimulation. In conclusion, further research needs to consider the micro-current stimulation intensity of $50{\mu} \mathrm{A}$ revealed through the present study, and the biological mechanism of nerve regeneration should be also identified based on the relationship between nerve injury and muscle atrophy.