L-arginine enhances muscle regeneration after experimental envenomation by B. jararacussu: a future for nitric oxide-based therapy?

Toxicon

Departamento de Anatomia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), CP 6109, CEP 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil.

Published: September 2006

We investigated whether muscle fiber regeneration would be rescued by exogenous administration of l-arginine, the precursor of endogenous synthesis of nitric oxide. The right tibialis anterioris muscle of adult mice (n=20) was injected with 80 microg of venom. One group of mice (n=10) received drinking water containing l-arginine (3.75 mg/ml) and another group (n=10) did not receive any pharmacological treatment. Two months later, muscle regeneration was evaluated by counting the total number of muscle fibers. We found that in l-arginine-treated mice, muscle regeneration was significantly higher (p<0.05) than in saline-treated (2.230+/-478 muscle fibers versus 1.005+/-134, respectively) although the level of muscle fiber population of uninjured tibialis anterioris muscle (3.121+/-102) was not attained. These results show that muscle regeneration was significantly facilitated by l-arginine and suggest that pharmacological activators of the NO pathway may be potentially useful for improving muscle regeneration in human envenomation by B. jararacussu.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2006.05.008DOI Listing

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