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Updated: Nov 25, 2025
Rodent Model of Masseter Volumetric Muscle Loss for Studying Bioengineering Materials
Published on: May 31, 2024
Masseter response to long-term experimentally induced anterior crossbite in Sprague-Dawley rats
Hong-Yun Zhang1, Jing Duan1, Jing Wang2
1State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shaanxi International Joint Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Oral Anatomy and Physiology and TMD, School of Stomatology, the Fourth Military Medical University, 145 Changlexi Road, Xi'an, 710032, PR China.
Objective:
To detect the long-term response to unilateral anterior crossbite (UAC) in masticatory muscles and in molecular biomarkers of peripheral blood leukocytes.
Design:
Fifty-six six-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were used. The gene-fold changes in peripheral blood leukocytes were detected by the microarray analysis to compare the rats that received 20-week UAC treatment with age-matched controls (n = 4). Muscle atrophy-related gene Fbxo32 was selected based on the data of the microarray analysis verified by using real-time PCR. The remaining 36 rats were randomly separated in the UAC and control groups at 12 and 20 weeks (n = 12). The protein expression of Fbxo32 and the muscle injury and myogenesis-related markers, αB-crystallin and desmin, were detected in the masseter and lateral pterygoid muscles by western blot assay.
Results:
In the 20-week UAC group, the masseter muscle weight was lower than that in the age-matched control group, and the expression level of Fbxo32 gene in peripheral blood leukocytes was increased according to the microarray analysis confirmed by real-time PCR detection. The increased protein expression levels of Fbxo32 were detected in the masseter in the 20-week UAC group, and the protein expression levels of desmin and αB-crystallin were decreased at this time point. No similar changes were detected in the lateral pterygoid muscle.
Conclusions:
Masseter atrophy is induced by long-term stimulation of UAC. The increased expression of the Fbxo32 gene in peripheral blood leukocytes may be a candidate biological marker of masseter atrophy.
