Jakyak-gamcho-tang ameliorates dexamethasone (DEX)-induced muscle atrophy and muscle dysfunction [Gastrocnemius and Soleus]

Jakyak-gamcho-tang (JGT) is a herbal medicine that has been traditionally prescrived for pain control including muscular pain. Muscle atrophy is a disease that is characterized with a gradual muscle loss. Muscle atrophy is clearly observed in experimental animals that receive a repeated high-dose of an artificial glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX). This transcriptome analysis aims to investigate the changes in global gene expression profiles in gastrocnemius (GA) and soleus (SO) muscle tissues from mice with DEX-induced muscle atrophy in the presence or absence of JGT co-treatment. Overall design: All study protocol involving experimental animals was peer-reviewed by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (#22-048). Ten weeks-old male C57BL/6N mice were acclimated for at least 1 week before study. Mice received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of 25 mg/kg/day DEX for cosecutive 10 days to induce muscle atrophy. Non-treated normal mice received i.p. injections of vehicle (PBS) instead of DEX. Thirty minutes after DEX injection, JGT at 100 or 400 mg/kg/day were administered to mice by oral gavage. Non-treated normal mice and DEX-only treated mice received oral gavage of PBS. Mice of positive control received oral gavage of resveratrol (200 mg/kg/day) instead of JGT. After 1 day of final drug injection, the GA and SO muscle tissues were isolated from hind legs of mice. A total RNA was isolated from muscle tissues uisng a TRIzol solution and subjected to mRNA-seq analysis. JGT02: Paeoniae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma at 2:1 weight ratio; JGT03: Paeoniae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma at 1:1 weight ratio; JGT04: Paeoniae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma at 1:2 weight ratio The dried powders of Paeoniae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma was subjected to extraction in a 10-fold volume of hot distilled water for 3 h in a reflux extraction system. The extract solution was filtered through a 53 micrometer mesh filter, concentrated in a rotary evaporator system and lyophilized in a freeze dryer to get a final JGT extract. The JGT was resuspended in sterile 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) in PBS on the day of drug administration. DEX was dissolved in a sterile PBS Resveratrol was dissolved in a sterile 0.5% CMC in PBS.