Multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention on mobility and hemodynamics of joint contracture animal model.

BACKGROUND: Joint contracture causes a decrease in range of motion (ROM), which severely affects activities of daily living of patients. We have investigated the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation on joint contracture by rat model. METHODS: We used 60 Wistar rats in this study. The rats were divided into five groups as follows: group 1 was the normal control group; except the group 1, we created left hind limb knee joint contracture using Nagai method for other four groups. The joint contracture modeling group 2 was the model control group for monitoring the spontaneous recovery, and other three groups were given different rehabilitation treatments; for example, group 3 was treadmill running group; group 4 was medication group; group 5 was treadmill running plus medication group. The left hind limbs knee joint ROM and the femoral blood flow indicators (FBFI) including PS, ED, RI, and PI were measured right before and after the 4 weeks of rehabilitation. RESULT: After 4 weeks of rehabilitation treatments, the measured values of ROM and FBFI are compared with the corresponding values of group 2. Firstly, we did not see clear difference in the values of ROM and FBFI for group 2 before and after 4 weeks spontaneous recovery. The improvement of left lower limb ROM for group 4 and group 5 as compared to the group 2 was statistically significant (p < 0.05), whereas a less recovery for group 3 was observed. However as compared to the group 1, we did not observe full recovery in ROM of group 4 and group 5 after 4 weeks of rehabilitation. The PS and ED level for rehabilitation treatment groups was significantly higher than those modeling ones (Tables 2, 3,  Figs. 4, 5), while the RI and PI values show the contrary trends (Tables 4, 5, Figs. 6, 7). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatments had a curative effect on both contracture of joints and the abnormal femoral circulations.

Effects of traditional Chinese Songchi ointment combined with treadmill training on PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway and inflammation in rats with disused muscles atrophy / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective:To observe any effect of supplementing treadmill training with applications of the traditional Chinese Songchi ointment in the rehabilitation of gastrocnemius muscles atrophied through disuse.Methods:Forty-five Wistar rats were randomly divided into a normal control group ( n=8) and a model group ( n=37). The rats in the model group had their left hind limbs immobilized by the Nagai method to induce disused muscle atrophy (DMA). That group was then randomly subdivided into a model control (MC) group, a treadmill training group (the EX group), a Songchi ointment group (SC group) and a comprehensive rehabilitation group (the CR group), each of 8. The EX and SC groups were given treadmill training at 18m/min or topical application of Songchi ointment once a day, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. The CR group was given both treatments. After the 6 weeks, hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to evaluate the pathological changes in the gastrocnemius of each rat′s left hind limb. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. PI3K, Akt and mTOR mRNA and protein were assayed using real-time quantitative PCR and western blotting. Results:The arrangement of muscle fibers in the MC group was disordered and there was a large number of infiltrated inflammatory cells. Such conditions were significantly relieved in the CR group. After the intervention the levels of inflammatory factors TNF-α and IL-1β in the CR group were, on average, significantly lower than those observed in the MC group, the EX group or the SC group, while the level of anti-inflammatory factor IL-10 was significantly higher. The average PI3K, Akt and mTOR mRNA and protein levels of group CR were significantly higher than those of the MC and EX groups.Conclusions:The traditional Chinese Songchi ointment can usefully supplement treadmill training to relieve DMA. It upregulates IL-10, activates the PI3K Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and promotes the synthesis of muscle fiber protein while down-regulating TNF-α and IL-1β and muscle fiber inflammatory response.