Disuse induced by the spine rectification vest: experimental study

The spine is the main support and movement axis of the locomotor system, and numberless clinical conditions may require that this structure be submitted to functional restriction. Among the non-invasive treatments used in spinal or appendicular skeleton injuries, the immobilization of the spine is used as a rehabilitation strategy. Because of the functional restrictions generated by restraining devices used on the spine, the proposal of this study was to adapt a spinal orthosis on rats, thus mimicking the immobilization of corrective vests and assessing the energetic conditions of thoracic muscles after 12 weeks of application. Wistar rats that were 42 days old were used in this study (post-weaning period), followed-up for 12 weeks in 2 groups called control (C) and rectification vests (R), which were made of PVC to immobilize the spine. The following concentrations were evaluated: glycogen (GLY) of the paravertebral muscle and the thorax; total proteins and DNA (TP/DNA) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The normality Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for statistical analysis, followed by the Tukey test. A 5% level was established for all of the calculations. It was observed that group R presented 12% less body mass and GLY stores 21% lower; the ratio between TP/DNA was in average 6.6% lower; IL-6 concentrations were in average 25% higher. The study shows that the movement restriction in the spine leads to energetic crisis and compromised muscular development. More studies should be conducted with this model to generate physical therapy strategies that could reduce muscle compromise after spine immobilization.脊柱是运动系统的核心支撑结构与运动轴，诸多临床病症均可能要求对该结构施加功能限制。在用于脊柱或附肢骨骼损伤的非侵入性治疗手段中，脊柱制动常被用作康复策略。鉴于脊柱约束装置会引发功能限制，本研究旨在为大鼠适配一款脊柱矫形器（spinal orthosis），以此模拟矫正背心的脊柱制动效果，并评估佩戴12周后胸肌的能量代谢状态。 本研究选取42日龄的Wistar大鼠（处于断乳后期），将其分为对照组（C组）与矫正背心组（R组）共2组，开展为期12周的跟踪实验；两组的脊柱制动装置均采用聚氯乙烯（PVC）制作，用于固定大鼠脊柱。 本次实验评估了以下指标：椎旁肌与胸肌的糖原（GLY）含量、总蛋白与DNA比值（TP/DNA）以及白细胞介素-6（IL-6）浓度。统计分析首先采用柯尔莫哥洛夫-斯米尔诺夫检验（Kolmogorov-Smirnov test）进行正态性检验，随后辅以图基检验（Tukey test），所有计算均设定5%的显著性水平。 实验结果显示，R组的体质量较对照组低12%，糖原储备量降低21%；总蛋白与DNA的比值平均降低6.6%；白细胞介素-6的浓度平均升高25%。 本研究表明，脊柱运动限制会引发能量代谢危机并损害肌肉发育。未来需基于该动物模型开展更多研究，以开发能够减轻脊柱制动后肌肉损害的物理治疗策略。