Efeitos da crioterapia em modelos de contusão e isquemia/reperfusão sanguínea em músculo de ratos

Abstract

The musculoskeletal disorders are in the most common injuries observed in individuals in the primary care, occupational health, and in sports medicine. Among these disorders, the contusion is described as a direct traumatic lesion that impairs the functioning of the skeletal muscle system. An acute event of ischemia and reperfusion (I/R), on the other hand, could be considered as one of the main issue involved in the pathophysiology of a musculoskeletal disorder. Among the main strategies employed in the treatment of a lesion is the reduction of the temperature of the tissues with the therapeutic aim, this mechanism is defined as cryotherapy. Although the clinical efficacy of the cryotherapy is well established in the literature, the mechanisms involved in its therapeutic effects are unclear. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of the cryotherapy in the treatment of a contusion and of an acute event of blood I/R in the gastrocnemius muscle of rats. Thus, we investigated the effects of cryotherapy under the biochemical and morphological changes related with a contusion (Article 1) and with an acute event of I/R (Manuscript 1), as well as the mechanisms involved in the genesis of its therapeutic effects. The treatment with cryotherapy determined a significant reduction in the oxidative damage since that limited the lipid peroxidation and the reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and also limited the lost of the cellular viability in the skeletal muscle tissue injured after a contusion (Article 1) and after an acute event of I/R (Manuscript 1). In this context, the levels of non enzymatic antioxidants, such as the levels of non protein thiols (-SH), and enzymatic antioxidants, such as the catalase enzyme (CAT), were also maintained similar to the observed in non injured muscles. The treatment with cryotherapy was effective in maintain the activities of enzymes sensitive to the oxidative stress, such as the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and the sodium/potassium (Na+/K+) and calcium (Ca2+) ATPases enzymes, similar to the observed in the tissues non injured both after a contusion (Article 1) and after as acute event of I/R (Manuscript 1). According to the histopathological analysis the cryotherapy treatment reduced the morphologic structure changes an also the presence of blood cells indicatives of hemorrhagic or inflammatory process in the skeletal muscle injured both after a contusion (Article 1) and after an acute event of I/R (Manuscript 1). In general, the results observed in this study indicate that an important mechanism by which the cryotherapy exerts its therapeutic effects is related with the reduction in the inflammatory response intensity in the site of the lesion. These results are indicated by the limited amount of inflammatory cells observed in the histopathological analysis and corroborated by the reduced activity of the myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme activity in the injured skeletal muscle tissue that was treated with cryotherapy. Furthermore, the cryotherapy limited the mitochondrial changes in the injured skeletal muscle tissue since that decreased the reactive species formation and maintained the mitochondrial membrane functionality both after a contusion (Article 1) and after an acute event of I/R (Manuscript 1). This result was indicated by the reduced swelling and limited impairment in the membrane potential (Δψ) in mitochondria of the injured skeletal muscle, and by the maintenance of the antioxidant levels similar to the observed in mitochondria of non injured skeletal muscle. Finally, the results of this study indicate that an acute event of I/R could be considered as an important mechanism involved in the pathophysiology of a musculoskeletal disorder since that determined biochemical and morphological changes similar to the observed after a skeletal muscle contusion.