Purpose: We sought to determine whether cyclooxygenase (COX) activity is necessary for overload-induced growth of adult rat skeletal muscle, and whether nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity is involved in upregulation of COX messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in skeletal muscle.
Methods: Unilateral surgical removal of the gastrocnemius and soleus was performed on the right hindlimb of 16 female Sprague-Dawley rats (approximately 230 g) to induce chronic overload (OL) of the plantaris for 14 d, with sham surgeries performed on the contralateral leg as a normally loaded (NL) control. Half of the rats were treated with the nonspecific COX inhibitor, ibuprofen (0.