Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Introduction: the current textbook model suggests that the myonuclear domain size is constant for muscle fibers in both their atrophic and hypertrophic state. However, recent animal studies show that myonuclear content is maintained after atrophy leading to a decreased myonuclear domain size (Gundersen et al. J Physiol. 2008 Jun 1;586(11):2675-81). This remains to be investigated in human skeletal muscle and the aim of the present study was therefore to study the effect of grave atrophy on myonuclear content and domain size in the vastus medialis muscle.

Materials and Methods: biopsies were obtained from vastus medialis on a 22 year old female patient before and 6 weeks after an anterior cruciate ligament reconstructionand meniscus repair surgery. Histochemical analyses were done to analyze fiber cross sectional area (CSA), fiber type composition and number of myonuclei per fiber.

Results: the CSA of type II muscle fibers decreased by 35% (from 4297±55 to 2807±64 µm²) whereas the number of myonuclei per fiber remained stable (3.4±0.4 and 3.9±0.5, pre and post respectively). The nuclear domain size was thereby decreased by ~40% (from 1255 to 722 µm²). There were only minor changes in type I muscle fiber CSA, myonuclei content and domain size.

Conclusion: in line with previous findings from animal studies, the present case study shows that the number of myonuclei per fiber is maintained and the domain size is reduced in human skeletal muscle after immobilization induced atrophy.