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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

An Alternant Method to the Traditional NASA Hindlimb Unloading Model in Mice
Published on: March 10, 2011
[THE DYNAMICS OF ENERGY SUBSTRATE CHANGES IN MICE MUSCLES AND LIVER AFTER SKELETAL INJURY THROUGH LIMB GRAVITATION
Abstract:
The authors studied the content of creatine phosphate, creatine and glycogen in skeletal muscles and that of glycogen in the liver of mice from three experimental groups. The animals of Group 1 (n = 18) underwent leg bone fracture modeling; those of Group 2 (n = 18) - modeling of limb gravitation unloading by their weight-bearing deprivation; the animals of Group 3 (n = 18) after modeling a leg bone fracture underwent weight-bearing deprivation in the model of gravitation unloading. As for Comparison Group, the same parameters studied in the intact animals at the age of two (n = 14) and three (n = 12) months. The authors found the decrease in the total content [creatine phosphate+creatine] and glycogen level in skeletal muscles of Group 1 and 2 mice in the process of the experiment, that was not observed in Group 3 mice. They concluded that the special features of the changes in the studied substrates of Group 3 mice were the consequence of the compensation of the increased energy due to injury by hypofunction of the muscle as a result of its gravitation unloading.
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