Standing Frame and Electrical Stimulation Therapies Partially Preserve Bone Strength in a Rodent Model of Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Standing frame and electrical stimulation may have potential as future therapeutic modalities to treat or prevent bone loss after SCI.

The Effect of Prior Exercise on Bone Morphological Microstructure after Immobilization in Mice

“…In agreement with this report, Scofield and Hecht showed that adolescents and adults who participated in non-weightbearing sports (e.g., swimming) often had lower bone mineral density than athletes participating in weight-bearing sports (e.g., running) [18]. In contrast, previous studies have shown an osteogenic effect of muscle contraction in the absence of weight-bearing conditions in rats, such as electrical stimulation while their tails are suspended, or when the rats were under paraplegic conditions [10,13,14,30,31]. In our study muscle contraction during swimming activity significantly improved bone quality, suggesting that bone tissue responds to mechanical loading by stimulating bone formation where strain is higher [22].…”

“…Weight-bearing exercises and muscle contractions have been used to study the effects of these techniques on the bone tissue quality of osteopenic rats [13,15,16]. It is well known that mechanical stimuli play important positive roles in osteogenesis through a still poorly understood mechanism called mechanotransduction.…”

“…As a result, exercise, antiresorptive drugs, and other techniques, such as electrical muscle stimulation, have been proposed as therapies to improve or prevent bone deterioration [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Rubin et al studied the effects of periods of unloading, interrupted either by regular weight bearing or vibration therapy, on the bone quality of rats.…”

Effect of Electrical Stimulation and Vibration Therapy on Skeletal Muscle Trophism in Rats with Complete Spinal Cord Injury

“…Stimulation was performed with 300-Ksec rectangular pulses delivered at 50 Hz with a 5-sec on/15-sec off duty cycle for a total duration of 20 mins. 15 The stimulation amplitude was adjusted (0Y150 mA) to produce a contraction that could be maintained for the duration of the stimulus with the goal of causing ankle plantar flexion and knee extension through the range of motion for each joint. The rats were not anesthetized during the therapy, and the animals were restrained inside a polyvinyl chloride tube with holes to allow breathing but with a closed extremity to avoid escape of the rat.…”

“…2,3,6,9,10 ES of skeletal muscle is commonly used to enhance function, 2 decrease muscle fatigue, 11 and prevent hypotrophy. 2,12Y14 Previous studies have shown that ES contributes to osteoporosis prevention 15 and muscle hypotrophy attenuation in subjects and animals with SCI. 2Y4,6,9,16 WBV has been used to improve bone and muscle mass in healthy individuals.…”