Experimental Periodontitis in the Potentialization of the Effects of Immobilism in the Skeletal Striated Muscle

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate if ligature-induced periodontitis can potentiates the deleterious effects of immobilization in the skeletal striated muscle, contributing to the development of muscle atrophy due to disuse. Forty Wistar rats were divided into four groups: (1) Control Group (CG), (2) Periodontal Disease (PDG), (3) Immobilized (IG), and (4) Immobilized with Periodontal Disease (IPDG). Periodontal disease was induced for 30 days, with ligature method, and the immobilization was performed with cast bandage for 15 days. Prior to euthanasia, nociceptive threshold and muscular grasping force were evaluated. Afterwards, the soleus muscle was dissected and processed for sarcomere counting and morphological/morphometric analysis. For data analysis, was used the one-way ANOVA and post-test Tukey (p < 0.05). The IG and IPDG presented lower muscle weight, lower muscular grip strength, and less number of sarcomeres compared to CG. The PDG showed reduction of muscle strength and nociceptive threshold after 15 days of periodontal disease and increased connective tissue compared to CG. The IPDG presented lower muscle length and nociceptive threshold. The IG presented reduction in cross-sectional area and smaller diameter, increase in the number of nuclei and a nucleus/fiber ratio, decrease in the number of capillaries and capillary/fiber ratio, with increase in connective tissue. The IPDG had increased nucleus/fiber ratio, decreased capillaries, and increased connective tissue when compared to the IG. The IPDG presented greater muscle tissue degeneration and increased inflammatory cells compared to the other groups. Ligature-induced periodontitis potentiated the deleterious effects of immobilization of the skeletal striated muscle.

Competing interplay between systemic and periodontal inflammation: obesity overrides the impact of oral periphery

“…1 ). Interaction between frailty, obesity, and muscle strength is important in an aging population and is also related to periodontitis and tooth loss [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Immobilization and experimental periodontitis in tibial anterior muscle of wistar rats

“…In this study, it was found that the association between periodontal disease and immobilization promoted potentiation of muscle fibre area reduction and augmentation of connective tissue. No studies were found relating these factors to the anterior tibial muscle; however, Leite et al [5], in the same association model, found that there were morphological alterations of muscle fibres and an increase in the connective tissue of the soleus muscle, confirming that the association of both increases the harmful effects of immobilization in muscle tissue, regardless of the structure and molecular composition of the muscles.…”

“…A similar result was found by Kuntz et al [16] in a model with in the area, but there was reduction of the smallest diameter. This may have occurred because periodontal disease may induce a systemic inflammatory response, thus favouring the reduction of muscle fibre [5,24], which may have occurred due to synergy between oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines and disuse, so that atrophy was accelerated or aggravated since, according to Fink et al [25] immobilization and inflammation decrease muscle strength, with the combination of both factors becoming additive. In the present study, muscle strength was not compared, but changes in fibre diameter and increase in the number of nuclei, as well as the increase of inflammatory cells in the association of the two conditions, evidences the need to control diseases that lead to systemic inflammation when associated with immobilism.…”

“…Human conditions, such as hospitalizations in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), the installation of diseases and injuries that lead to prolonged rest periods, as well as the immobilization of a limb, are capable of promoting complications in the various systems of the organism, especially in the affecting musculature the muscular tissue, with functional and structural alterations such as the loss of muscular mass [5][6][7].…”

“…However, there are gaps in the literature regarding the action of these two associated conditions, since the muscle tissue responds to the stimuli to which they are submitted; when there is disuse there may be alterations in the shape of muscle fibres as well as processes that contribute to inflammatory damage in the muscle [12][13]. Since periodontal disease has systemic effects, there are correlates of muscle changes resulting from systemic inflammation [5,14]. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether periodontal disease, through systemic inflammation, potentiates the deleterious effects of immobilization on the anterior tibialis muscle of Wistar rats.…”