Efeito dos recursos terapêuticos sobre marcadores bioquímicos e comportamentais nas lesões musculares em ratos

Abstract

Sports practice can induce injuries to muscle fibers, generating oxidative damage and an inflammatory process. Therapeutic practices are used to reduce this damage, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and cold-water immersion (CWI). Thus, the present study aims to investigate through biomarkers the influence of treatment with therapeutic cold and/or PRP in experimental muscle injury models in animals. In the first study, we present the therapeutic effects of PRP after muscle contusion, and we observed that the contusion increased the levels of oxidative stress markers, such as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and oxidized dichlorofluorescein, both in skeletal muscle tissue and in erythrocyte preparations, and PRP treatment reduced these markers of oxidative damage. In addition, contusion decreased cell viability at the injury site and PRP was effective in modulating this effect, as it was also able to increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) in the injured muscle, as well as the levels of the non-protein thiols group (-SH) in erythrocytes. In a second study, we compared the combination of two treatments (PRP and CWI) very commonly used in sports. The levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and oxidized dichlorofluorescein were significantly increased in both skeletal muscle tissue and erythrocytes, and the combination of PRP and CWI minimized these parameters. In addition, PRP and CWI combined were more effective than treatments alone in increasing catalase activity, reduced/oxidized glutathione ratio, and non-protein thiol (-SH) group levels. Finally, in the third work, we compared the two methods of experimental muscle injury used in the two previous works. The contusion and strain injury increased the levels of oxidative stress markers, however, the injuries showed significant differences from each other in the markers of oxidized dichlorofluorescein, superoxide dismutase enzyme activity and N-acetyl-beta glucosaminidase enzyme activity in skeletal muscle tissue. In addition, the lesions showed differences in the behavioral analyzes in the bar walk test. In general, the results obtained in this thesis support a new strategy for the treatment of muscle injuries using the combination of PRP and CWI. In addition, our studies support the understanding of the specificity of these musculoskeletal injuries, supporting treatment strategies that can effectively rehabilitate these sports injuries, minimizing unnecessary costs and accelerating the return of athletes to their practice.