Study on the establishment of a system for measuring muscle strength of cisplatin-induced muscle atrophy model in mice

Abstract

Cisplatin is widely used in the treatment of various cancers, but it causes atrophy of skeletal muscles. The atrophy might induce sarcopenia, which greatly reduce the quality of life of patients. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an evaluating test system of muscle weakness in muscle atrophy models. There are many reports of cisplatin-induced muscle atrophy and ameliorating effect of D-methionine in mice. However, most of reports are based only at endpoint observation. Successive observations over time might be necessary to obtain precise information on the effects of chemicals on muscle function. Therefore, we examined the possibility of quantifying the effects of D-methionine on cisplatin-induced muscle atrophy model by measuring muscle strength using 1300A, 3-in-1 Whole Animal System (Aurora scientific). D-Methionine (300 mg/kg/day, p.o.) and Cisplatin (3 mg/kg/day, i.p.) were administered to male C57BL/6J mice for a week. The muscle strength was measured at days 3 and 7 after the first administration. As the results, the muscle strength of the mice injected cisplatin was lower than that of normal mice, and D-methionine ameliorated muscle weakness at the both time points. These results indicate that the current test system would be useful to evaluate potential efficacy of newly therapeutic chemicals on myofunction.