Massage Protects against Disuse Atrophy in Young Adult Rats

Use it or lose it. Conditions that require limb immobilization or extended be rest can lead to rapid muscle wasting. Medical interventions to prevent muscle disuse atrophy had limited success. Massage is known to prevent muscle dystrophy.

In an experiment using rats, the application of massage, in the form of cyclic compressive loading to hindlimb that has been subjected to immobiliation results in a greater increase in muscle protein synthesis and muscle fiber cross-sectional area.

Now, a follow-up study determines if massage has similar anabolic effects when applied during normal weight bearing  as an anabolic stimulus, or during hindlimb suspension to prevent muscle loss.

Adult (10 month) male F344/Brown Norway rats underwent either hindlimb suspension (n=8) or weight-bearing (n=8) for 7 days. In the treatment groups, massage as of cyclic compressive loading was applied directly to the gastrocnemius muscle at a load of 4.5 N and 0.5 Hz for 30 minutes every other day for a total of 4 bouts to both hidlimb suspended (n=9) and weight bearing (n=9) rats.

Muscle cross sectional area was significantly lower in hidlimb suspended vs weight-bearing rats.

Massagge on hindlimb suspended group significantly minimise the loss of muscle.

Massage in weight bearing rats did not affect any anabolic parameter assessed. In contrast, there were strong and significant effects of massage during suspended hindlimb minimising the loss of muscle cross sectional area through enhancing myofibrillar protein synthesis and protecting against ribosomal breakdown.

The authors concluded that the findings support the use of massage to reduce muscle loss during disuse by increasing protein synthesis in either the massaged or contralateral non-massaged limb.