RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS-INCREASED GENE EXPRESSIONS IN MUSCLE ATROPHY ARE RESTORED BACK TO CONTROL AS A RESPONSE TO ACUTE RESISTANCE EXERCISE

Abstract

This study had as objective to analyze the acute effects of resistance exercise (RE) on the mRNA levels of the following genes (MyoD, myogenin, IGF-1, atrogin-1, MuRF-1, and myostatin) in rheumatoid arthritis (experimental arthritis). Therefore, 26 females rats were randomly allocated into four groups, control (CT, n=7), exercise (Ex, n=6), rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n=6) and RA with exercise (RAEx, n=7). Met-BSA was injected into the tibiotarsal joint in the RA and RAEx groups. After 15 days from injection, the animals were submitted to an acute bout of RE and six hours post protocol the animals were euthanized. We evaluated the joint thickness, inflammation score, cross-sectional area (CSA) of gastrocnemius muscle fibers and mRNA expression of the IGF-1, MyoD, myogenin, myostatin, MuRF-1, atrogin-1 and GAPDH. It was observed that the joint thickness and score strongly increased in arthritic rats (p <0.001) while the CSA decreased (p ? 0.05). Increased mRNA levels of IGF-1 (2.0 fold), myostatin (4.5 fold), atrogin-1 (2.5 fold), MyoD (3.7-fold) and myogenin (5 fold) were observed in muscle of arthritic rats. The mRNA expression of myostatin, atrogin-1, MyoD and myogenin decreased in the RAEx group. In this way, we can conclude that experimental arthritis-increased gene expressions in muscle atrophy (myostatin, atrogin-1, MyoD and myogenin) are restored back to control as a response to acute RE.