Study on effect of dissection of the rat connective tissue between gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in limitation of ankle dorsiflexion angle

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study is investigated the effect of dissection of the connective tissue between skeletal muscles in rat joint contracture caused by joint fixation and unweighting. [Materials and methods] The subjects of this study were 10-weeks old male Wistar rats. All rats were fixed the right ankle joints in full plantar flexion and suspended hind limbs for one week, divided into two groups by absence or presence of dissection of the connective tissue between gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. On the last day of this study, all of the rats’ right ankle dorsiflexion angles were measured on pre- and post-dissection. [Results] The change of the right ankle dorsiflexion angle from pre-dissection to post-dissection in dissection group was significantly larger than that in no dissection group. [Conclusion] It was shown that the dissection of the connective tissue between skeletal muscles might be improved the joint contracture.