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[Effect of DHEA administration alone or exercise combined with DHEA before steroid treatment on rat hindlimb muscles]
1College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. machoe@snu.ac.kr
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.
