Clenbuterol accelerates recovery after immobilization-induced atrophy of rat hindlimb muscle.

Using immunohistochemistry, we investigated whether daily administration of clenbuterol (CLE; 1 mg/kg body weight per day) accelerates recovery after casted immobilization(IMM)-induced atrophy of fast-twitch plantaris and slow-twitch soleus muscles. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to the control (CON), casted immobilization (IMM), casted immobilization following recovery control (RCON), and casted immobilization following recovery with CLE administration (RCLE) groups. Casted immobilization and recovery periods were 9 and 14days, respectively. Rats of the CON group were subjected to the experiment simultaneously with the IMM group. Nine days of immobilization induced muscle fiber atrophy, which was greater in the soleus muscle than in the plantaris muscle. After the 2-week recovery period, the cross-sectional areas of each fiber type in both muscles were higher in the RCON group than in the IMM group. The cross-sectional areas of each fiber type in both muscles in the RCLE group were larger than those in the RCON group. The myonuclear number of each fiber type of the plantaris muscle in the RCON and RCLE groups was higher than that in the CON group. In contrast, the myonuclear number per fiber of the soleus muscle was not affected by hindlimb immobilization, reloading, and clenbuterol administration regardless of muscle fiber type. These results suggest that CLE accelerates the recovery of atrophied plantaris and soleus muscles fibers and that their mechanisms of responses to CLE in both muscles may be different during recovery period after muscle atrophy.

Statistical analysis of fiber area in human skeletal muscle.

Previous research has indicated that 50 fiber measurements per individual for type I and II fibers would be sufficient to characterize the fiber areas. This study replicated the work of McCall et al. (1998) using the three major fiber types (I, IIA, and IIB) and sampling larger populations of fibers. Random blocks of fibers were also examined to investigate how well they correlated with the overall mean average fiber area. Using random blocks of 50 fibers provided an accurate reflection of the type IIB fibers (r = 0.96-0.98) but not for the type I (r = 0.85-0.94) or IIA fibers (r = 0.80-0.91). Type I fibers were consistently reflected by a random block of 150 fibers (r = 0.95-0.98) while type IIA fibers required random blocks of 200 fibers (r = 0.94-0.98), which appeared to provide an accurate reflection of the cross-sectional area. These results indicate that for a needle biopsy different numbers of fibers are needed depending on the fiber type to accurately characterize the mean fiber population.

Inhibited longitudinal growth of bones in young male rats by clenbuterol.

PURPOSE: Clenbuterol is one of the beta-2 adrenergic receptor agonists with potent anabolic properties in muscles, yet the concomitant effects on muscle and bone in young animals remain to be resolved. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of clenbuterol administration on muscles and bones of young rats. METHODS: Twelve male Sprague-Dawley rats (9-wk-old) were randomly assigned to either a control (CON, N = 6) or clenbuterol group (CLE, N = 6). Clenbuterol of 2 mg x kg body wt x d(-1) was administered subcutaneously for 4 wk. After treatment, the soleus (SOL), extensor digitorum longus (EDL), and ventricle (VENT) muscles and the femurs (FE) and tibiae (TI) bones were excised and analyzed. The bone mineral content (BMC), area, and bone mineral density (BMD) of FE and TI were measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The longitudinal lengths of bones were measured with the Vernier calipers. RESULTS: CLE showed smaller body weight than CON (P < 0.05) after the treatment. The muscle wet weights in CLE tended (P = 0.08) to be higher than CON in SOL (9%) and EDL (12%), but the ratio of muscle wet weight-to-body weight were higher (SOL: P < 0.05, EDL: P < 0.01) than CON. VENT of CLE showed increases in both the wet weight and the ratio (P < 0.01). FEs in CLE showed smaller values in BMC (P < 0.01), area (P < 0.01), and length (P < 0.05) than CON but not in BMD. TIs showed significant decreases (P < 0.01) in BMC, area, and length but not in BMD. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that clenbuterol induced the muscular hypertrophy but inhibited the longitudinal growth of bones in young male rats, which may be a serious concern in any ergogenic use.