Limb lengthening promotes muscle growth

Abstract

Studies of limb lengthening have demonstrated successful bone formation in the distraction gap. Failure of the muscle units to lengthen leads to many complications that significantly limit the success of this approach; it is, therefore, of paramount importance to characterize the behavior of the muscle during limb lengthening. In this study, tibiae of adult rabbits were lengthened for 10 days at a rate of 1 mm/day. The proliferative ability of the lengthened muscle was characterized using bromodeoxyuridine, a thymidine analogue that is incorporated during cell division, and desmin, a muscle-specific marker. We observed a large number of proliferating cells, specifically in the lengthened muscle, that were co-localized with many desmin-positive cells. The presence of bromodeoxyuridine nuclei inside desmin-positive muscle fibers suggests that limb lengthening promotes muscle growth by triggering myoblast proliferation and fusion into the lengthened muscle. Our findings are consistent with those of other studies in the reviewed literature that also suggest that limb lengthening promotes muscle growth.

Changes in pennate muscle architecture after gradual tibial lengthening in goats

“…Although in this study, no adequate labeling was done to rule out definitely an ongoing process of sarcomere neogenesis, the amount of stretching of the sarcomeres was enough to account mathematically for the recorded increase in FL at this time point, suggesting that the number of sarcomeres in series probably did not significantly change after lengthening. This appears to be in contrast to previous reports, which indicated that distraction osteogenesis stimulated muscle growth (Day et al, 1997a;De Deyne, 2002;De Deyne et al, 2002) and induced adding new sarcomeres in se- Fig. 4.…”

“…Previous investigations demonstrated that muscles increase in length after bone distraction (Lee et al, 1993;Simpson et al, 1995;Day et al, 1997b;Kanbe et al, 1998;De Deyne et al, 2000;Fink et al, 2000bFink et al, , 2000cCastano et al, 2001;Lindsey et al, 2002). Some reports demonstrated that distraction increased fiber length (FL), mainly by generating new sarcomeres in series (Williams et al, 1998;Lindsey et al, 2002).…”

Angiogenesis and myogenesis in mouse tibialis anterior muscles during distraction osteogenesis: VEGF, its receptors, and myogenin genes expression

“…Investigators have reported that distraction osteogenesis promotes muscle regeneration, including increased sarcomerogenesis, higher numbers of proliferating nuclei, and increased muscle weight. [8][9][10][11][12] In addition, Olfert et al 23 showed that VEGF produced by myocytes was required for regulating muscle capillarity. These results suggest that VEGF in the satellite cells, induced by mechanical tension-stress, also affect myogenesis and angiogenesis.…”

“…[4][5][6][7] Similar results have been reported for myogenesis in the surrounding skeletal muscles following distraction osteogenesis. [8][9][10][11][12] However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying angiogenesis and myogenesis in the skeletal muscles which are induced by mechanical tension-stress during distraction osteogenesis has not yet been elucidated.…”

Is Botulinum Toxin Type A a Valuable Adjunct During Femoral Lengthening? A Randomized Trial

“…Distraction-induced tension can lead to stiffness of muscles and tendons, resulting in joint contracture and pain [5,21]. These contractures are thought to result from inadequate adaptation of muscle and soft tissue and a strength imbalance between agonist and antagonist muscles [6,18].…”