Promising Therapeutic Efficacy of Trigonella- foenum graecum and Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Skeletal Muscle Atrophy in Experimental Rat Model

Abstract

Skeletal muscle plasticity is maintained by various ways to regulate cell and protein turnover. When muscle atrophy occurs, proteolytic cascades are activated, resulting in the removal of organelles and contractile proteins, leading to myofibrillar shrinkage and great loss of the total muscle mass. This is linked to improper diagnosis in several diseases such as myopathies and muscular dystrophies, systemic disorders, and many catabolic diseases. The present study was carried out to evaluate the powerful mitigatory ability of Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and/or Trigonella foenum-graecum Linn. (Tfg) against simvastatin induced muscular atrophy model in experimental rats. A total number of 50 rats were divided mainly into 2 groups; the first group served as the normal control group (con.) (n=10) and was allowed to take normal saline via oral gavage tube. While the remaining 40 rats were subjected to simvastatin to induce muscular atrophy at a dose of 80 mg/kg b.wt., after 46 days, the 40 rats were divided into 4 groups (n=10): (1): Muscular atrophy group (MA) served as a positive control group and sacrificed by the end of the 46 days, (2): (MA+Tfg) which were treated with Tfg only (500mg/day.),(3): (MA + BM-MSCS) each rat received a single dose of 0.5 ml phosphate-buffered saline as a vehicle of stem cells injected into the tail vein and (4): received co-treatment of (Tfg+ BM-MSCS). All the groups' compromised rats were sacrificed after 30 days of the different treatments. In order to figure out muscle atrophy and the treatment efficacy serum biomarkers CK and Troponin, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammatory markers were also determined, molecular investigations of atrogin-1, FoxO-3, mTOR, C-miR-486, and PAX3 were carried out accompanied to histopathological analysis using hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) stain. Tfg and/or BM-MSCs showed gradual improvement in most of the parameters confirmed by the histopathological determinations, confirming the present scientific team's assumption that Tfg and BM-MSCs have a promising therapeutic role in the treatment of muscular atrophy, which needs more studies and investigations.