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Updated: Jul 7, 2026
In Vivo Functional Assessment of Rat Masseter Muscle Following Surgical Creation of a Volumetric Muscle Loss (VML) Injury
Published on: November 15, 2024
Masseter muscular weakness affects temporomandibular synovitis induced by jaw opening in growing rats
Miho Ozaki1, Sawa Kaneko, Kunimichi Soma
1Department of Orofacial Development and Function, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan. mihk.orts@tmd.ac.jp
Objective:
To evaluate the influence of impaired masseter function during growth on the development of temporomandibular synovitis.
Materials And Methods:
Sixteen 3-week-old male Wistar rats were classified into four groups. The first group served as control; and in the second group, jaw opening was forced for 3 hours when the rats were 9 weeks old. In the third and fourth groups, the masseter muscles were bilaterally resected at 3 weeks of age, and the rats in the fourth group were additionally forced to open their jaw at 9 weeks of age. All rats were sacrificed at 9 weeks. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) tissue samples were processed for histology, and evaluated for cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expressions by immunohistochemistry to examine the inflammatory changes in the synovial membrane.
Results:
The control group showed noninflammatory changes. In the jaw-opening group, vascular dilation and weak COX-2 immunoreactivity were induced by jaw opening in the synovium. In the masseter-resection group, the masseter-resected rats exhibited moderate synovial changes while in the resection with opening group, the masseter-resected rats revealed more significant inflammatory changes including synovial hyperplasia, dilated vasculature, fibrin deposits, and intense immunoreactivity for COX-2 and iNOS, all caused by jaw opening.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that masseter activity in the growth period is an important factor in the induction of temporomandibular synovitis.
