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Impact of treadmill locomotor training on skeletal muscle IGF1 and myogenic regulatory factors in spinal cord injured rats

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of treadmill locomotor training on the expression of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF1) and changes in myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) in rat soleus muscle following spinal cord injury (SCI). Moderate, midthoracic (T8) contusion SCIs were produced using a NYU (New York University) impactor. Animals were randomly assigned to treadmill training or untrained groups. Rats in the training group were trained starting at 1 week after SCI, for either 3 bouts of 20 min over 1.5 days or 10 bouts over 5 days. Five days of treadmill training completely prevented the decrease in soleus fiber size resulting from SCI. In addition, treadmill training triggered increases in IGF1, MGF and IGFBP4 mRNA expression, and a concurrent reduction of IGFBP5 mRNA in skeletal muscle. Locomotor training also caused an increase in markers of muscle regeneration, including small muscle fibers expressing embryonic myosin and Pax7 positive nuclei and increased expression of the MRFs, myogenin and MyoD. We concluded that treadmill locomotor training ameliorated muscle atrophy in moderate contusion SCI rats. Training-induced muscle regeneration and fiber hypertrophy following SCI was associated with an increase in IGF1, an increase in Pax7 positive nuclei, and upregulation of MRFs.

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Acknowledgments

Data were presented in part at the ACSM 54th annual meeting New Orleans May 2007. This work was supported by the Paralyzed Veterans Association, PVA Research Foundation Grant # 2347 and the National Institutes of Health (P01HD05975 and R01HD042955). Funding for Min Liu was provided through the Craig H. Neilsen foundation #84004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100154, Rm 1142 PHHP Bldg, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Min Liu, Jennifer E. Stevens-Lapsley, Arun Jayaraman, Fan Ye & Krista Vandenborne

  2. Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Prodip Bose & Floyd J. Thompson

  3. Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Glenn A. Walter

  4. North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Jennifer E. Stevens-Lapsley & Prodip Bose

  5. Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Christine Conover & Stephen E. Borst

  6. Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Christine Conover & Stephen E. Borst

  7. Physical Therapy Program, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA

    Jennifer E. Stevens-Lapsley

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  1. Min Liu
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  2. Jennifer E. Stevens-Lapsley
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  3. Arun Jayaraman
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  7. Prodip Bose
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  8. Floyd J. Thompson
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Correspondence to Krista Vandenborne.

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Communicated by Susan Ward.

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Liu, M., Stevens-Lapsley, J.E., Jayaraman, A. et al. Impact of treadmill locomotor training on skeletal muscle IGF1 and myogenic regulatory factors in spinal cord injured rats. Eur J Appl Physiol 109, 709–720 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-010-1392-z

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