THE EFFECT OF APPROPRIATE ELECTRICAL STIMULATION ON ATROPHY OF DENERVATED SKELETAL MUSCLE IN THE RAT

Abstract

Large segments of the sciatic nerve were removed bilaterally and daily electrical stimulation of the gastrocnemius on one side with 25 cycle alternating currents and slow sinusoidal currents was carried out, the other side serving as the untreated control. The foot was loaded with a 20 g. weight and maximal stimuli were used. The animals were sacrificed at specified times and the gastrocnemii were dissected out and weighed immediately. Since the avg. wt. difference between the right and left gastrocnemii of the same animal is less than 2% for both normal muscle and untreated denervated muscle, wt. differences of more than 10% between treated and untreated sides were considered significant. When the muscles were stimulated for 15 mins. daily with a 25 cycle alternating current, the avg. % wt. difference between treated and untreated muscles was +19.6% at 14 days and + 52.5% at 28 days. The rate of atrophy was markedly diminished. When a slow sinusoidal current was used there was no significant difference in wt. between treated and control muscles.