Enhancement of hybrid-fiber types in rat soleus muscle after clenbuterol administration during hindlimb unloading

Our objective was to determine the effects of a clenbuterol (CB) treatment orally administered (2 mg per kg) to rats submitted to 14 days of hindlimb unloading (HU). The morphological and the contractile properties as well as the myosin heavy chain isoforms contained in each fiber type were determined in whole soleus muscles. As classically described after HU, a decrease in muscle wet weight and in body mass associated with a loss of muscular force, an evolution of the contractile parameters towards those of a fast muscle type, and the emergence of fast myosin heavy chain isoforms were observed. The CB treatment in the HU rats helped reduce the decrease in 1) muscle and body weights, 2) force and 3) the proportion of slow fibers, without preventing the emergence of fast myosin isoforms. Clenbuterol induced a complex remodelling of the muscle typing promoting the combination of both slow and fast myosin isoforms within one fiber. To conclude, our data demonstrate that CB administration partially counteracts the effects produced by HU, and they allow us to anticipate advances in the treatment of muscular atrophy.