Beneficial effect of locomotor training on the structure of the denervated rat soleus muscle

In order to study mechanisms of muscle denervation atrophy, a locomotor training on a treadmill was applied to denervated rat soleus muscle. Ultrastructure of the treated muscles were investigated two months after denervation. It has been found that pathological changes caused by denervation were less pronounced in trained muscle comparing to untrained muscle. For example, the number of capillaries was increased, accumulation of collagen fibrils was reduced, typical degenerated myofibers were hardly seen, and the structure of the contractile apparatus was much better preserved. Thus, locomotor training seems to attenuate some of the pathological processes within the denervated soleus muscle.