[The effect of retabolil and support loads on atrophied muscles in suspended rats]

In experiments with rats histological and morphometric methods were employed to study effects of anabolic steroid rhetabolil and a combination of rhetabolil with predetermined support loads on development of atrophy in m. soleus and m. gastrocnemius. Muscular atrophy was provoked by tail suspension of rats for a period of 30 days. Rhetabolil was injected once a week I/M at a total dose of 10 mg per 100 g of the body mass. The experiment showed that this dose of rhetabolil had no effect on atrophy development; neither it amplified the favorable effect of support loads observed in earlier experiments with injection of small doses of rhetabolil. A supposition was made that the anti-atrophy effects of rhetabolil combined with the support loads are dose dependent. It was concluded that large doses of rhetabolil do not activate anabolic processes in the load-deprived muscles.