Role of O2O3 administration in skeletal muscle regeneration: experimental evaluation in a murine model

Introduction. In the last fifteen years, Ozone mixtures (0203) administration has been widely utilized as treatment of several human diseases. Many authors describes clinical trials in which this gas was positively employed (by auto-transfusion of ozo¬nized blood) to reduce pain associated to muscular spasms and discal disease of the back; it seem to improve the vascolarization (1) and oxygenation rate of ischemic tis¬sues, as in diabetes (2). On muscular tissues, Ozone is reported to affect contractil¬ity, hematic supply, glucose uptake and to increase the activity of many specific en¬zymes (Creating Kinas, Gliceraldheide-3Pdh, Aconites), with a generic effect of "improvement of fitness". Mechanisms of action of this gas are not yet well eluci¬dated but, for sure, 03 can oxidize NAD/NADPH, improve oxidative glycolysis, in¬crease lactic acid elimination (3). However, up to today no extensive experimental studies have been performed to demonstrate (or to confute) the validity of 0203 ad¬ministration. Aim of this study is to utilize a well established animal (mice) model of skeletal muscle regeneration to evaluate the effects of Ozone intravascular adminis¬tration. Materials and Methods. 30 C57/B16 female mice, two months old, were crushed by injection of 30~1 of Cardiotoxin (Latoxan) within both the Tibialis Anterior muscle (4). Then, 50~1 of Ozonized blood (40~lg/ml) from singenic mice was inoculated, three times a week, in the tail vein of 20 mice (treated group). 10 Control mice re¬ceived same amount of non Ozonized blood. Every week, for two mounts, 1 Control and 2 Treated animals were sacrificed and their TA isolated, OCT included, serially sectioned (lO~m) and collected to perform EE staining, morphometry by mean of Scion Image program (5), immunohystochemical and molecular studies. Results and hypothesys arising from this study will be exposed and discussed on the Poster.