TROFISMO E FORÇA MUSCULAR RELATIVA DE RATAS SUBMETIDAS À IMOBILIZAÇÃO

Abstract

Immobilization is an orthopedic tool used to treat traumatic injuries that compromise musculoskeletal structures. However, this practice may produce adverse effects on the immobilized structure, as well as adjacent structures. In order to curb the damages generated by disuse, aquatic therapy has been used to assist in the physiological adjustments of the body. The present study aims to analyze the trophism and relative muscular strength of the cardiac muscle as well as the muscular structures of rats submitted to immobilization and recovered with aquatic therapy. The project was approved by the Committee of Ethics for the Use of Animals of the State University of Ceará, under the protocol nº 1122178 of 05/10/2017. Thirty-two female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: Control (CTR), Immobilized (I), Aquatic Therapy (TA) and Immobilized with Aquatic Therapy (ITA). Immobilization occurred in the right hind limb, including the pelvis, hip, femur, knee (extension), tibia, and ankle (plantar flexion) for two weeks. Aquatic therapy occurred for six days a week over two weeks. After this period the animals were sacrificed and the structures of interest were dissected: heart, soleus and he extensor digitorum longus. Muscle trophism was calculated by the ratio between the weight of the wet muscle (mg) and the final body weight (g) of the animals. The relative muscle strength was delimited by the ratio of muscle weight (mg) to tibial length (mm). Statistical analysis was used ANOVA One way with Brown-Forsythe and Kruskal-Wallis test, considering difference with p <0.05. Results were expressed as average ± standard error. It was found that there was a significant decrease in the relative muscle strength of the ELD in the immobilized group compared to the CTR group in the contralateral limb. However, it was observed that the aquatic exercise treatment remedied the damages caused by the muscular disuse in the soleus and cardiac muscle of the ITA group, being a great ally in reducing the deleterious effects of immobilization.