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Investigation of the biochemical and histopathological effects of vitamin C, selenium, and therapeutic ultrasound on muscle damage in rats

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Abstract

Muscle injury is a common type of soft tissue injury. Increased oxidative damage has been reported after muscle injuries. Therapeutic ultrasound is commonly used for such injuries. This study compared the efficacy of therapeutic ultrasound treatment and various antioxidant agents in experimental muscle injuries. For this purpose, some serum enzymes, oxidative stress, and inflammatory markers were evaluated together with histopathological examinations. Six groups were formed with 6 male Wistar albino rats in each group. These groups were control, only injury (OI), ultrasound (U), vitamin C (Vit C), selenium (S), and mixture (M). Muscle injury was caused by a laceration of the gastrocnemius muscle in all groups except the control group. No treatment was performed in the OI group. At the end of the 6-day application, all rats were sacrificed. As for serum enzymes, CK, ALT, and AST levels returned to control values in almost all treatment groups. Total oxidative status (TOS) and oxidative stress index (OSI) increased in the OI group, while they decreased in the S and M groups. In addition, the decrease in MPO activity in the blood tissue of the Vit C group was statistically significant. There were no significant changes between groups in terms of serum inflammatory markers and histological findings. This study has shown that the ingestion of vitamin C and selenium may contribute to the treatment of muscle injury in addition to therapeutic ultrasound treatment. However, further studies are needed to support these results.

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Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Abbreviations

AU:

Arbitrary units

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

TAS:

Total antioxidant status

TOS:

Total oxidant status

OSI:

Oxidative stress index

EDTA:

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid

TPU:

Therapeutic pulsed ultrasound

MuSCs:

Muscle satellite cells

TBARS:

Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances

CK:

Creatine kinase

LDH:

Lactate dehydrogenase

ALT:

Alanine aminotransferase

AST:

Aspartate aminotransferase

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha

IL-1β:

Interleukin-1 β

H2O2 :

Hydrogen peroxide

KH2PO4 :

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate

MPO:

Myeloperoxidase

C:

Control

OI:

Only injury

U:

Ultrasound

Vit C:

Vitamin C

S:

Selenium

M:

Mix

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Funding

This study was supported by Van Yuzuncu Yil University Scientific Research Projects (YYU BAP) with Project number 2012-SBE-YL034.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, 65080, Van, Turkey

    Yasin Tülüce

  2. Department of Physiology, Institute of Health Sciences, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, 65080, Van, Turkey

    Necati Muhammed Tat & Ayşe Merve Tat

  3. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, 65080, Van, Turkey

    Mehmet Kara

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  1. Yasin Tülüce
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  2. Necati Muhammed Tat
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  3. Mehmet Kara
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  4. Ayşe Merve Tat
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Contributions

Yasin Tülüce: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing—reviewing and editing, project administration, funding acquisition, formal analysis, resources, methodology. Necati Muhammed Tat: conceptualization, conducting, writing—original draft preparation, validation, data curation. Mehmet Kara: supervision, visualization, investigation. Ayşe Merve Tat: formal analysis, data curation. The authors declare that all data were generated in-house and that no paper mill was used.

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Correspondence to Yasin Tülüce.

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This study was approved by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Animal Experiments Local Committee. Approval number: 2012/04–11.

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Tülüce, Y., Tat, N.M., Kara, M. et al. Investigation of the biochemical and histopathological effects of vitamin C, selenium, and therapeutic ultrasound on muscle damage in rats. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 396, 3581–3593 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-023-02547-w

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