Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 68, Issue 2 687-692, Copyright © 1990 by American Physiological Society
Incomplete normalization of dog gracilis muscle grafts with neurovascular repair despite long-term recovery
T. P. Martin, L. A. Gundersen, A. C. Vailas, V. R. Edgerton and S. K. Das
Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Skeletal muscle grafts performed with neurovascular repair are used
extensively in clinical situations. However, most controlled experimental
studies on the efficacy of such grafts have been conducted on muscles with
a relatively small mass and over a limited recovery period. Therefore,
selected cellular and matrix component properties of the comparatively
large dog gracilis muscle (75 g) were studied 9-12 mo after orthotopic
neurovascular grafting. The grafted muscle wet weights were 71% of the
contralateral control (sham-operated) muscles. In addition, the
concentrations of noncollagenous protein (13%), DNA (28%), and RNA (34%)
were significantly reduced in the grafts. However, the concentration of
collagen was significantly higher (41%) in the grafts. In this regard, the
type III collagen phenotype showed the greatest relative increase. There
was no difference between the grafted and control proteoglycan
concentration. The metabolic profiles of the grafted muscles were
significantly different from control. The activities of myofibrillar
adenosinetriphosphatase (34%) and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase
(25%) were reduced, whereas citrate synthase remained unchanged. These data
suggest that recovery of up to 1 yr was insufficient for the normalization
of several connective tissue matrix components and biochemical properties
of the grafts.
