Stretch-induced growth in chicken wing muscles: effects on hereditary muscular dystrophy

Skeletal muscle growth induced by passive stretch was characterized in the Patigialis muscle of chicks with hereditary muscular dystrophy. When the muscle of 6-wk-old chicks was stretched for 1 wk, the effects on muscle growth and on muscle pathology were variable, but in general few differences between stretched and unstretched muscles were observed. However, when the muscle of 1-wk-old chicks was stretched for 6 wk, the effects on muscle growth and on prevention of pathology were dramatic. Similar to results obtained previously when normal chick muscles were stretched [Holly et al., Am. J. Physiol. 238 (Cell Physiol. 7): C62-C71, 1980; Barnett et al., Am. J. Physiol. 239 (Cell Physiol. 8): C39-C46, 1980], stretched dystrophic muscle increased in weight (200%), cross-sectional area (107%), and fiber cross-sectional area (82%). DNA concentration, which is severalfold higher in unstretched dystrophic muscle compared with unstretched normal muscle, fell to values not different from normal values after being stretched. Nuclei per square millimeter also were the same for stretched dystrophic and stretched normal muscle. Histograms indicated that stretching induced a fiber distribution in dystrophic muscle qualitatively similar to that found in stretched normal muscle. Cytochemical observations revealed a dramatic protective effect of stretch against the progressive pathology of dystrophy. It is concluded that stretch of muscle applied to newly hatched dystrophic chicks is a powerful deterrent of symptoms characteristic of hereditary muscular dystrophy. Stretch imposed after the symptoms of dystrophy are apparent provides little, if any, protection.