Age-related Alterations of Apoptosis in Ischemic-reperfused Rat Tibialis Anterior and Soleus Muscles

Seo, Youn Kyoung; Shin, Chae Soo; Kim, Jong Heon; You, Young June; Paik, Doo Jin

Abstract

Prolonged ischemic-reperfusion induces cellular damages and apoptosis in rat skeletal muscle. Such injury takes place in the phase of reperfusion following ischemia induction in part via regulating of apoptosis-related gene inductions. The present study was performed to examine the age-related alertation of expression of apoptosis in rat tibialis anterior and soleus muscles following ischemia-reperfusion. 9 weeks, 30 weeks, and 65 weeks old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups such as controls and ischemia. For ischemia, left commom iliac artery was occulded for 4 hours using rodent vascular clamps. The tibialis anterior and soleus muscles were removed 0, 3, and 24 hours after onset of reperfusion. Muscle samples were embedded in paraffin and 6 micrometer sections were made. The apoptotic reactions was detected using TUNEL methods. The results obtained were as follows; 1. In control groups, the number of apoptosis was increased with aging, but not significantly. 2. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis was increased at 3 hours after ischemia, and decreased at 24 hours after ischemia. 3. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis was increased with aging. 4. In ischemia groups, the number of apoptosis in the tibialis anterior muscle was higher than that in soleus muscle. These results suggested that the ischemic injury of the rat skeletal muscle is increased with aging and that tibialis anterior muscle is more susceptabile to ischemic injury than soleus muscle.