Rutin improves diabetes-induced muscle atrophy in mice

Muscle atrophy is a common complication in diabetes mellitus. Rutin has multiple biologic and therapeutic effects both in diabetic complications and muscle functions. However, no researches have implied prevention and treatment of rutin on muscle atrophy in diabetes mellitus. Our data demonstrated that rutin increased myocyte area and weight of gastrocnemius to promote muscular strength (p<0.01). Moreover, rutin attenuated Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 expressions to improve atrophy (p<0.01). The mechanism of rutin against diabetes-associated muscle atrophy is closely linked to its regulations on decreasing Bax expression (p<0.01) and increasing Pgc-1α, Nrf-1 and Bcl-2 expression (p<0.01). In conclusion, rutin protected against diabetic myopathy through its modulation of mitochondria bioactivity and apoptosis. These data suggested rutin could be a therapeutic agent on the improvement of diabetic muscle atrophy.