Effect of Electrical Stimulation on the Denervated Muscle of the Albino Rat. Sprague-Dawley

전기자극이 흰쥐 탈신경 근육의 위축에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to determined the effect of low-frequency electrical stimulation on the denervated gastrocnemius muscles of the albino rats, Sprague-Dawley. Fifteen Sprague-Dawley adult male albino rats were divided into non-treated (normal) group, denervated (control) group, denervated and electrical stimulated (experiments). The gastrocnemius muscles of the right leg were submaximally stimulated with 30 Hz electrical stimulation. After 4-week period, the animals were sacrificed, and muscle were removed, fixed by immersion, and processed for light and electron microscopy. The numbers of Ag-NOR increased significantly (p<0.001), but significant reductions of girth(p<0.01), wet muscle weight (p<0.001), high glycogen content fiber (p<0.01), and mitochondrial number (p<0.05) were found in denervated control group. In comparison with control group, significant increase of right leg girth (p<0.05), wet muscle weight (p<0.001), high glycogen content fiber (p<0.05), numbers of Ag-NOR(p<0.001), number of mitochondria (p<0.01), mitochondrial volume found in electrical stimulated experimental group. The results suggest that the electrical stimulation of the muscle partially prevented the denervated atrophy in the rat gastrocnemius muscles.