J Korean Acad Nurs.  2009 Jun;39(3):321-328. 10.4040/jkan.2009.39.3.321.

Effect of DHEA Administration Alone or Exercise combined with DHEA before Steroid Treatment on Rat Hindlimb Muscles

• Choe MA
• An GJ

• KMID: 999301
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2009.39.3.321

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) administration alone or exercise combined with DHEA before steroid treatment on rat hindlimb muscles.
METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to one of three groups: a steroid group (S, n=10) that had no treatment for 7 days before steroid treatment; a DHEA-steroid group (DS, n=8) that had 0.34 mmol/kg/day DHEA injection once a day for 7 days before steroid treatment and an exercise?steroid group (EDS, n=9) that ran on the treadmill combined with 0.34 mmol/kg/day DHEA injection for 7 days before steroid treatment. At 15 days all rats were anesthetized and soleus, plantaris and gastrocnemius muscles were dissected. Body weight, food intake, muscle weight, myofibillar protein content and cross-sectional area of the dissected muscles were determined.
RESULTS
The DS group showed significant increases (p<.05) as compared to the steroid group in body weight, and muscle weight of gastrocnemius muscles. The EDS group showed significant increases (p<.05) as compared to the S group in body weight, muscle weight, myofibrillar protein content, and Type II fiber cross-sectional area of soleus, plantaris and gastrocnemius muscles.
CONCLUSION
Exercise combined with DHEA administration before steroid treatment prevents steroid induced muscle atrophy, with exercise combined with DHEA administration being more effective than DHEA administration alone in preventing muscle atrophy.

Keyword

Steroids; Dehydroepiandrosterone; Exercise; Hindlimb; Muscular atrophy

MeSH Terms

Animals
Body Weight
Dehydroepiandrosterone/*administration & dosage
Hindlimb
Male
Muscle Contraction/drug effects
Muscle, Skeletal/*drug effects/pathology
Muscular Atrophy/chemically induced/*prevention & control
*Physical Conditioning, Animal
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Steroids/*toxicity

Figure

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  Figure 1 Experimental design. *Muscle dissection. S=steroid; DS=DHEA-steroid; EDS=exercise+DHEA-steroid.

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  Figure 2 Cross-section of soleus, plantaris and gastrocnemius muscles in S (left), DS (middle) and EDS (right) rats. The first line is soleus, the second line is plantaris, and the third line is gastrocnemius in S, DS and EDS rats. Cross-section of the soleus, the plantaris and the gastrocnemius muscles in S rats was adapted from a study by Choe & An (2007). S=steroid; DS=DHEA-steroid; EDS=Exercise+DHEA-steroid; Dark=Type I fiber; light=Type II fiber (ATPase staining, 100×).

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