The effect of aerobic training along with resveratrol consumption on myostatin and IGF-1 levels in gastrocnemius muscle of rats after spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with muscle atrophy. Therefore, the purpose of present study was to investigate the effect of aerobic training with resveratrol consumption on myostatin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels in the gastrocnemius muscles of rats after spinal cord injury.
thirty-six male Wistar rats aged eight weeks were placed in 4 groups including control, resveratrol, training and resveratrol + training. Spinal cord injury was caused by dropping a ten-gram weight from a height of 25 mm on the spinal cord in the T10 segment. Resveratrol supplement with a dose of 10 mg/kg was injected intraperitoneally and daily. The aerobic training was carried out with the help of the weight support system for 4 weeks, each session was 58 minutes and the intensity was 20 m/min. The level of myostatin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels in the gastrocnemius muscle were measured by ELISA method. To analyze the data, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test were used at the significance level of p<0.05.
Myostatin level in gastrocnemius muscle of training and resveratrol groups did not show any difference compared to the control group, But Myostatin level in gastrocnemius muscle of training+resveratrol group was significantly lower than control group (p=0/045). IGF-1 level in gastrocnemius muscle of training and resveratrol groups did not show any difference compared to the control group, But IGF-1 level in gastrocnemius muscle of training+resveratrol group was significantly higher than control group (p=0/021).
it seems that aerobic training, when combined with resveratrol supplementation, can prevent atrophy caused by spinal cord injury in muscles below the injury level by affecting the level of muscle myostatin and IGF-1.