Combined treatment of therapeutic laser and herbal application improves the strength of repairing ligament.

The present study investigated the effects of combined therapeutic laser and herbal medication protocols on injured medial collateral ligaments (MCLs) of rat knees. Fully 36 rats were evenly divided into 9 groups. Right MCLs of groups 1 to 6 and 8 were transected, while that of groups 7 and 9 remained intact. After surgery, group 1 was treated with 1 session of high-dosed laser; group 2 with 9 sessions of low-dosed laser; group 3 with an herbal plaster; groups 4 and 5 received combined treatments of groups 1 and ss and 2, and 3 respectively; groups 6 and 7 received only bandaging; groups 8 and 9 received placebo laser and no treatment, respectively. All MCLs were subjected to biomechanical testing at 3 weeks postsurgery. Results revealed significant differences among groups in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and stiffness (p < 0.01). Combination of multiple low-dosed laser treatment with herbal treatment (group 5) resulted in higher UTS than either no treatment (groups 6 and 8), single high-dosed laser treatment (group 1), multiple low-dosed laser treatment (group 2), or herbal treatment (group 2) alone. We concluded that combined applications of laser and herb can enhance further biomechanical properties of repairing rat MCLs than separate applications at 3 weeks postinjury.

Herbal remedies improve the strength of repairing ligament in a rat model.

Herbal remedies have been reported to be effective in controlling inflammation for acute soft tissue injuries. There exist, however, no reports of their effects on collagen production and remodeling; thus mechanical strength studies of the tissues have not been reported. This study tested the effects of a herbal remedy on the strength of healing medial collateral ligaments (MCL) in rats. Sixteen rats receiving surgical transection to their right MCLs and eight receiving sham operation were tested. Eight of the MCL-injured animals were treated with an adhesive herbal plaster application to their right knees, while the other eight in the MCL injured group and the sham group were treated with plain adhesive plaster to their right knees. The MCLs were harvested and tested at either 3 or 6 weeks post-operation. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and stiffness normalized to the uninjured side of each animal of the herb and sham groups were significantly larger than those of the control at both 3 and 6 weeks (p = 0.001). No significant difference was found in stiffness between the herb and sham groups (p > 0.05). We concluded that the herbal remedy improves the UTS and stiffness of repairing MCLs at 3 and 6 weeks after injury.

Running exercises improve the strength of a partially ruptured Achilles tendon.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of running and swimming exercises on the functional performance and mechanical strength of a recovering Achilles tendon. METHODS: 30 Sprague-Dawley rats had surgical transection of their right medial Achilles tendon. The rats were divided into running (n = 11), swimming (n = 10), and control (n = 9) groups. The running and swimming groups were given daily exercise training, starting from the fifth day after the injury; the control group did not exercise throughout the period of the experiment. An Achilles functional index (AFI) was recorded before the operation and on the third, 10th, and 30th days after the operation. On the 30th day, the rats were killed and their Achilles tendons harvested for biomechanical testing of load relaxation properties, stiffness, and ultimate tensile strength (UTS). The AFI data were analysed by two way analysis of variance; load relaxation, stiffness, and UTS data were analysed by multivariate analysis, with alpha at 0.05. RESULTS: The UTS of the running group was higher than in the control group (p = 0.015), while there was no significant difference between the swimming and control groups (p = 0.228). Differences in stiffness and load relaxation were non-significant (p = 0.823 and 0.633, respectively). The AFI results did not differ among the three groups (p = 0.242). CONCLUSIONS: Running exercises can improve the strength of partially ruptured Achilles tendons at 30 days after injury.

Effects of herbal application on the ultrastructural morphology of repairing medial collateral ligament in a rat model.

The present study investigated the effects of an external herbal application on the ultrastructural morphology of repairing medial collateral ligament (MCL) in a rat model. Eight MCL-transected/herb-treated rats (group 1) were compared with 8 MCL-transected/placebo-treated controls (group 2) and 8 MCL-intact/placebo-treated rats (group 3). At 3 and 6 weeks posttransection, MCL specimens were examined under electron microscope. With analysis of 370,709 collagen fibrils, all herb-treated animals had significantly larger fibrils than the controls (p < .001) at 6 weeks postinjury. The mean diameter of those peripheral collagen fibrils of group 1 was larger than the sham group (p < .001). The mass-averaged diameters of group 1 (50.49 to 143.07 nm) and group 3 (59.69 to 188.88 nm) were larger than group 2 (50.59 to 121.94 nm). The area coverage by collagen fibrils ranged from 46.86 to 94.97% for group 1 and 43.70 to 68.08%f or group 3 as compared with 40.01 to 50.77% for group 2. Mode obliquity was 0.56 to 0.84 among groups. We concluded that herbal remedy increases collagen fibril size of healing rat MCLs homogeneously at 6 weeks posttransection.

Investigation of the collagen fibril distribution in the medial collateral ligament in a rat knee model.

This study compared the collagen fibril diameter distribution among six anatomical sites of the rat medial collateral ligament (MCL). Ultrathin MCL sections from 4 male Sprague-Dawley rats were examined electron microscopically. With an automated quantitation method, 41,638 fibrils were measured and compared among the periphery and core regions of the femoral, middle, and tibial portions of the MCL. Results demonstrated significant difference (p < .0033) in mean fibril diameter distribution among the six sites. The mass-averaged diameters of the core and peripheral fibrils were between 175.53 to 190.82 nm and 88.47 to 109.18 nm, respectively, with the peripheral fibrils more homogeneous in size. The fibrils occupied 36.7% to 57.1% of the cross-sectional area of the ligament. About 50% of the fibrils had an oblique factor of 0.8-1.0, implying that most fibrils were aligned longitudinally. This study has provided a detailed profile of the collagen fibril distributions in rat MCL.