Exercise-induced muscle damage in the rat: the effect of vitamin E deficiency

Abstract

Rats, fed a vitamin-E-deficient diet for 6 weeks, performed treadmill exercise for 2 h. Muscle damage was assessed by measuring the creatine kinase (CK) activity in plasma before and after exercise, and by studying semi-thin longitudinal sections of the soleus muscle 48 h after running. Vitamin-E-deficient male and female rats showed an increased post-exercise CK activity when compared to matched controls, but male rats showed a larger CK response than females. This rise in plasma CK activity was caused mainly by an increased activity of the muscle-specific CK-isoenzyme, CK-MM (males + 1238%; females + 540%, P less than 0.05). In a parallel histological study we observed in vitamin-E-deficient male rats a dramatic and significant disturbance of the normal cyto-architecture of the muscle fibres after exercise (focal necrosis, phagocytosis and cellular infiltrates), whereas in females only minor, non-significant, changes were seen. We conclude that vitamin E deficiency enhances the susceptibility to exercise-induced muscle damage in male rats more than in female rats. This difference between the sexes is attributed to the protective effect of oestradiol that remains operative in female rats when the vitamin E status is disturbed: male rats lack such hormonal protection.

Effects of vitamin E deficiency on fatigue and muscle contractile properties

“…It seems likely that this damage is occurring in regions of the fiber important for the regulation of muscular contraction and, therefore, may contribute to the impaired ability to maintain muscle force production during the fatigue protocol. This postulate is supported by the work of Amelink et al (1991),who reported that EDEF enhanced the susceptibility of exercise-induced muscle damage during treadmill exercise in rats.…”

The Effects of Ascorbic Acid on the Estrogen/Progesteron Levels in the Isolated Rabbit Uterine Muscle

“…Studies in animals support the theory that estrogen protects membrane integrity during times of oxidative stress. Antioxidants act as a cooperative network, employing a series of redox reactions [17][18][19][20]. Additive effect of AsA in anti-oxidation may be responsible for increased levels of tissue estrogen.…”

Different effects of strenuous eccentric exercise on the accumulation of neutrophils in muscle in women and men

“…There has been con¯icting evidence of sex dierences in animals concerning the amount of muscle damage present in the exercised muscle following eccentric exercise (Amelink et al 1991;Van Der Meulen et al 1991). There have also been reports from animal studies that indicate dierences in susceptibility to oxidative stresses between males and females, and evidence of an anti-oxidant and membrane-stabilizing eect of oestrogens (Tiidus 1995).…”