Skeletal Muscle Regeneration in Very Old Rats

This study was undertaken to assess the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle in rats near the end of their normal life span. Two experiments were performed. In the first, extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were cross-age transplanted from 32-month-old male inbred Wistar (WI/HicksCar) rats in place of an EDL muscle in 4-month-old hosts. The other EDL muscle in the hosts was autotransplanted. After 60 days, the old-into-young muscle transplants regenerated as well as the young-into-young autotransplants. In the second experiment, EDL muscles in young adult (4 months) and old rats (32 and 34 months) of WI/HicksCar and Brown Norway (BN) were injected with a local anesthetic, bupivacaine, and allowed to regenerate for 41 days. In all cases, the masses and absolute maximum tetanic force of the regenerates equaled or exceeded those of untouched contralateral control muscles. These experiments showed that under appropriate conditions, very old muscles can regenerate to equal or exceed the contralateral control values, which in old rats are much less than those in muscles of young rats.