Single ankle joints of male Wistar rats (15-week-old) were immobilized in the extended position for 7 days and remobilized for 5 days after the immobilization period. Atrophic and contralateral soleus, typical slow red muscles, were collected and their levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) and glutathione were measured. Five-day remobilization did not increase muscle weight significantly. However, there were significant increases in TBARS and oxidized glutathione in the recovering muscle, which strongly suggested that enhanced oxidative stress occurred during the recovery from disuse muscle atrophy. Vitamin E injection accelerated the recovery from atrophy, thus showing that oxidative stress slowed it down.
