Alterations of morphology, mechanical and osteogenic capacity of mdx mice bones / Alterações da morfologia, resistência mecânica e capacidade osteogênica dos ossos de camundongos mdx

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2011

RESUMO

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a neuromuscular disease caused by lack of dystrophin. DMD patients have brittle bones because of muscle weakness and use of glucocorticoids. The mdx mouse is widely used as experimental model for the study of DMD and it presents lack of dystrophin, intense inflammatory process and muscle fiber degeneration. Moreover, it presents cycles of muscle degeneration/regeneration that becomes more marked after the twenty-first day of life. Studies have shown that mdx mice have elevated levels of fibroblast growth factor and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, as well as accelerate wound healing in skin lesions. Based on this evidence, we formulate two hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that there may be changes in the bones of mdx mice by the influence of the absence of dystrophin or by some other mechanism inherent to the disease even before clinical manifestation. The second hypothesis is that the process of spontaneous bone repair can also be accelerated, similar to skin healing. To test the first hypothesis, the femur and the quadriceps muscle of mdx mice were analyzed at 21 days of life. To verify the second hypothesis a defect was produced in the right parietal bone and the regeneration was evaluated after 15, 30 and 60 days after surgery. In the morphological analysis of quadriceps were observed muscle fibers with peripheral nuclei and were not seen Evans blue dye positive fibers in both groups, indicating that there was no fiber degeneration in mdx group. The femur of the mdx group demonstrated osteopenia, lower number of osteoblasts, lower mineral content and lower mechanical strength in the absence of signs of muscular degeneration compared to the control group. In the study of the parietal bone, the data showed no significant difference in newly formed bone volume between control and mdx groups in the three moments after the operation and also between the three moments, regardless of the studied group. Given these results, we conclude that the femur of mdx mice at 21 days of life can contain a disorder linked to some genetic factor, directly or not related to the absence of dystrophin. This demonstrated that loss of bone quality in mdx mice occurs not only because of muscle weakening. Considering the lower femur bone quality and statistical similarity in the rate of bone regeneration, we believed that the osteogenic capacity of mdx calvaria was more expressive than that of control mice, equaling the rate of bone repair of a tissue with lesser quality to that of normal bones

ASSUNTO(S)

camundongo mdx femur resistência mecânica biomecânica matriz ossea ossos - regeneração mdx mice femur mechanical strength bony matrix bones

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