Single ankle joints of male Wistar rats (15-week-old) were immobilized
in the extended position for 7 days and remobilized for 5 days after
the immobilization period. Atrophic and contralateral soleus, typical
slow red muscles, were collected and their levels of thiobarbituric ac
id-reactive substance (TBARS) and glutathione were measured. Five-day
remobilization did not increase muscle weight significantly. However,
there were significant increases in TBARS and oxidized glutathione in
the recovering muscle, which strongly suggested that enhanced oxidativ
e stress occurred during the recovery from disuse muscle atrophy. Vita
min E injection accelerated the recovery from atrophy, thus showing th
at oxidative stress slowed it down.