Radial extracorporeal shock wave reduces myogenic contracture and muscle atrophy via inhibiting NF-κB/HIF-1α signaling pathway in rabbit

ABSTRACT

Purpose

We investigate the underlying biological effects and mechanisms of rESWT on myogenic contracture and muscle atrophy in a rabbit model of extending knee joint contracture.

Materials and Methods

In group control, the knee joint was not fixed. In group I-4w, the knee joint was only fixed for 4 weeks. In groups SR-1 w, SR-2 w, and SR-4 w, the knee joint was fixed for 4 weeks before the rabbits underwent 1, 2, and 4 weeks of self-recovery, respectively. In groups rESWT-1 w, rESWT 2 w, and rESWT-4 w, the knee joint was fixed for 4 weeks before the rabbits underwent 1, 2, and 4 weeks of rESWT, respectively. The myogenic contracture was measured, the cross-sectional area and key protein levels for NF-κB/HIF-1α signaling pathway and myogenic regulatory factors were evaluated.

Results

During the recovery period, biological findings showed that the levels of myogenic contracture and muscle atrophy were milder in group rESWT by compared with group SR after 2 weeks. Molecular biological analysis showed that MyoD protein levels in the group rESWT was significantly higher than those in the group SR, and importantly, phospho-NF-κB p65 and HIF-1α protein levels in the group rESWT were significantly lower than those in the group SR at the same time point.

Conclusions

This is the first study demonstrated that rESWT has the potential to reduce myogenic contracture and muscle atrophy after long-term immobilization in animal model. It is a possible mechanism that changing the low oxygen environment in skeletal muscle through rESWT may inhibit activation of NF-κB/HIF-1α signaling pathway.

KEYWORDS:

• Radial extracorporeal shock wave
• muscle atrophy
• myogenic contracture
• NF-κB/HIF-1α signaling pathway
• myod

Authors’ contributions

Feng Wang conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript. Wen Li participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. Peng Peng Huang carried out the molecular studies. Yun Zhou participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. Quan Bing Zhang performed the statistical analysis in the revised manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Hua Wang from School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University for his valuable corrections and advices.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Animal care and experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the Guidelines for Animal Experimentation of Anhui Medical University and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (LLSC20190761).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. The manuscript, including related data, figures and tables have not been previously published and are not under consideration elsewhere.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This study was jointly funded projects of Wannan Medical College Research Foundation (WK2020ZF23) and Anhui Key Research and Development Program (201904a07020067).