Effect of hindlimb unloading and reloading on the soleus and plantaris muscles in diabetic rats.
Sachiko Madokoro, Pleiades Tiharu Inaoka, Shoji Tanaka and 1 others
PMID 30214115WHAT IT FOUND
In diabetic rats, one week of reloading after two weeks of hindlimb suspension brought soleus fiber size back to control levels, but plantaris fiber size stayed smaller than control.
This is rat tissue data, not human evidence.
Key findings
01Tail suspension lowered soleus fiber cross-sectional area compared with control in both Wistar and GK rats, and reloading increased it compared with the suspended group.
02In GK rats, plantaris fiber cross-sectional area was lower than control after suspension and after reloading, with no difference between suspended and reloaded groups.
03Myofiber necrosis and centrally nucleated fibers did not differ across groups, although GK reloaded soleus had a necrosis value of 0.34%, higher than other groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
This was a rat study, so it does not show what happens in people with diabetes or what exercise prescription should be used. Each group had only 8 rats, and the paper does not describe random allocation or blinding. The reloading period was only one week, and the authors say muscle damage may peak on day 2 after reloading, so this timing may miss important changes. The outcomes were muscle size and tissue damage markers, not strength, walking ability, falls, or patient-reported function. The diabetic rats had higher blood glucose, but the study did not test a rehabilitation intervention in humans.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these results to prescribe exercise for patients with diabetes. The study measured rat muscle tissue after suspension and reloading, and one-week reloading did not return diabetic plantaris muscle fiber size to control values.