Effect of therapeutic pulsed ultrasound on parameters of oxidative stress in skeletal muscle after injury

Abstract

Contusion injuries are a very common form of both athletic and non-athletic injury, that effect muscle function. Treatments to augment the normal repair and regeneration processes are important for a wide variety of patients. Therapeutic ultrasound has been claimed to promote tissue repair, especially by enhancing cell proliferation and protein synthesis. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of therapeutic pulsed ultrasound (TPU) on parameters of oxidative stress, namely thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), protein carbonyl content and the activities of antioxidant enzymes, catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD), in skeletal muscle after injury. Wistar rats were submitted to an animal model of muscle (gastrocnemius) laceration. TPU was used once a day. One, three or five days after muscle laceration, the animals were killed by decapitation and oxidative stress parameters were evaluated. Serum CK levels were increased in muscle-injured animals, indicating that the laceration animal model was successful. TBARS were not altered after muscle injury, when compared to the sham group. Protein carbonyl content was increased after muscle laceration. Catalase and SOD activities were increased 1 day after muscle injury and not altered at days 3 and 5. TPU decreased TBARS levels after muscle laceration when compared to injured muscle animals without treatment. Protein carbonyl content evaluation presented similar results. It is tempting to speculate that TPU seems to protect the tissue from oxidative injury. TPU diminished catalase and SOD activities, especially on the first day following muscle laceration.

Effects of phonophoresis with gold nanoparticles on oxidative stress parameters in a traumatic muscle injury model

“…Although TPU alone accelerates the recovery of muscle injuries, these effects can be improved with the combined use of pharmacologic agents, as reported previously by our group (Freitas et al, 2007). Thus, the combined use of ultrasound and anti-inflammatory agents such as DMSO and GNPs represents an important alternative in the treatment of muscle injuries (Rocha et al, 2011).…”

“…Colloidal gold and some of the compounds have recognized therapeutic properties, especially for the treatment of inflammatory and arthritic processes (Kim et al, 2007). Several studies performed in our group using phonophoresis and/or iontophoresis with topic application of GNP for treating muscle and tendon injuries in rats show promise and indicate the possibility of use this new therapy in the treatment of these diseases in humans (Freitas et al, 2007(Freitas et al, , 2010Silveira et al, 2010Silveira et al, , 2012Dohnert et al, 2012;Engelmann et al, 2012;Victor et al, 2012).…”

“…The ultrasound-treated area was $2 cm 2 (Freitas et al, 2007). The movement of the beam was circular.…”

“…The movement of the beam was circular. The parameters used for the TPU were established in previous studies by our group (Freitas et al, 2007(Freitas et al, , 2010Silveira et al, 2010). The groups with muscle injury and treatment with DMSO, GNPs and Plus were also exposed to circular beam movement for 6 min with the ultrasound in off mode (Saliba et al, 2007).…”

“…Ours results have shown that 5 and 7 days after the muscle injury the anti-inflammatory and antioxidants effects are potentiated from application of nanoparticles plus ultrasound. (Freitas et al, 2007(Freitas et al, , 2010Engelmann et al, 2012;Silveira et al, 2010Silveira et al, , 2012Victor et al, 2012). Therefore, considering such results, we decided to evaluate the effects of this therapy on oxidative stress parameters at an earlier stage of the inflammatory response (48 h), when the production of ROS is greater.…”