Effects of Prostaglandin Inhibitation, Electrical Stimulation and Local Heating on Skeletal Muscle Atrophy

Effects of local heating with infrared irradiation (IR) and aspirin treatment together with electrical stimulation (ES) on progression of atrophy in denervated rat gastrocnemius muscle were studied. In IR treated denervated muscle, the degenerative changes were considerably greater than unheated groups. This, we thought, was due to synthesis of prostaglandis (PG's) which were stimulated with heating. In the aspirin treated group, the dosage of aspirin we used (4 mg/kg/per four day) and electrical stimulation together, were sufficient to inhibit the muscle PG synthesis. Histologically, the atrophy of these muscles and degenerative changes were considerably less than others. This study showed that, atrophy will be retarded by aspirin treatment together with electrical stimulation in denervated striated muscles.