Abstract
Introduction: One of the well-known exogenous fluorinated glucocorticoid that is used to treat inflammatory and various autoimmune illnesses is dexamethasone. Dexamethasone is known to cause skeletal muscular weakness and when used for an extended period of time, skeletal muscle undergoes atrophy. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a glycoprotein that helps mobilize stem cells from bone marrow into peripheral circulation. In order to maintain the function of skeletal muscle, these mobilized stem cells multiply and differentiate into mature myocytes. This study was conducted to investigate to what extent administration of filgrastim, human methionyl G-CSF, ameliorates glucocorticoid-induced skeletal muscle damage in adult male albino rats. Methods: Thirty adult male albino rats were randomly divided into three groups (ten/group), group I (control group, CG): rats received normal diet and orally given normal saline, group II (dexamethasone group, DG): rats were given dexamethasone at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg for 1 month by intraperitoneal injection, group III (filgrastim group, FG): rats were given dexamethasone at dose of 0.5 mg/kg and on day 15, at the beginning of the third week, they were given filgrastim at a dose of 20 μg/kg till the end of the 4th week by intraperitoneal injection with dexamethasone. Assessment of creatine kinase (CK) levels, total body weight, and motor activity at different time points was done and skeletal muscles specimens were processed for light microscopy, electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry examination. Results: Administration of dexamethasone (group II) showed variant types of pathological changes such as elevated CK, decrease in body weight, impairment of muscle activity and histologically myofibrillar disarrangement together with cellular infiltration and edema. FG showed significant reduction in most of those manifestations. Administration of filgrastim with dexamethasone meliorated most of the symptoms related to dexamethasone induced-myopathy. Conclusion: Filgrastim administration recovered manifestations of skeletal muscle injuries caused by dexamethasone.
Journal Section:
Stem Cells
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