Experimental Study of Rat Limb Preservation Method and Change of Muscle Biological Characteristics

Abstract：Objective To observe the relationship of biologicalcharacteristics of amputated limb muscle between with different preservation methods.Methods Quadriceps femoris muscles from Wistar rats werepreserved for 24 hours at 4℃ in extracellular-type trehalose containingKyoto (ETK),University of Wisconsin (UW),or lactated Ringer's (LR)solution (control).Amputated limbs of rats preserved with ETK,UW,or LR for6 or 24 hours at 4℃ were transplanted orthotopically.Blood samples from the external jugular vein were obtained 60 minutes after surgery for a-nalysis of serumlevels of creatine phosphokinase (CPK),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),alanine aminotransferase (ALT),lactate dehydrogenase (LDH),creatinine (Cr),bloodurea nitrogen (BUN),and potassium (K).At week 8,ter-minallatency and amplitude were measured in the tibialis anterior muscle.Themuscles were also analyzed histologically by hematoxylin and eosin staining (HE)and Masson's trichrome staining.Results In the 6-hour-preserved limb trans-plantation model,electrical amplitude was significantly lower inthe LR group.Histologically,muscles preserved with LR showed the mostatrophic changes.In the 24-hour-preserved model,the survival rate of the LR group was 37.5％ in con-trast to 80％ in the ETK and UW groups.Electrical signals were not detected in the LR group owing to severe muscle atrophy and fibrosis.The ETK and UW groups showed good muscle functionelectrophysiologically.Conclusion ETK solutions can protect muscle function and morphology in ischemia-reperfusion limbs and improve recipient survivalrates after transplantation of long-term-preserved limbs.