Use of growth factors to improve muscle healing after strain injury

Muscle injuries represent a large number of professional and recreational s ports injuries, Muscle strains habitually occur after an eccentric contract ion, which often leads to an injury located in the myotendinous junction, T reatment varies widely, depending on the severity of the trauma, but has re mained limited mostly to rest, ice, compression, elevation, antiinflammator y drugs, and mobilization. The authors' research group aims to develop new biologic approaches to improve muscle healing after injuries, including mus cle strains, To achieve this goal, the authors investigated several paramet ers that will lead to the development of new strategies to enhance muscle h ealing. The authors first evaluated natural muscle healing after strain inj uries and showed that muscle regeneration occurs in the early phase of heal ing but becomes impaired with time by the development of tissue fibrosis, S everal growth factors capable of improving muscle regeneration were investi gated; basic fibroblast growth factor, insulinlike growth factor, and nerve growth factors were identified as substances capable of enhancing muscle r egeneration and improving muscle force in the strained injured muscle. The current study should aid in the development of strategics to promote effici ent muscle healing and complete recovery after strain injury.