Massage is a viable mechanotherapy to improve protein turnover during disuse atrophy and improve muscle regrowth during recovery from disuse atrophy in adult muscle. Therefore, we investigated whether massage can cause beneficial adaptations in skeletal muscle from aged rats during normal weight-bearing (WB) conditions, hindlimb suspension (HS), or reloading (RE) following HS. Aged (30 months) male Fischer 344/Brown Norway rats were divided into two experiments: (1) WB for 7 days (WB, n = 8), WB with massage (WBM, n = 8), HS for 7 days (HS7, n = 8), or HS with massage (HSM, n = 8), and (2) WB for 14 days (WB14, n = 8), HS for 14 days (HS14, n = 8), reloading (RE, n = 10), or reloading with massage (REM, n = 10) for 7 days following HS. Deuterium oxide (D₂O) labeling was used to assess dynamic protein and ribosome turnover in each group and anabolic signaling pathways were assessed. Massage did have an anabolic benefit during RE or WB. In contrast, massage during HS enhanced myofibrillar protein turnover in both the massaged limb and contralateral non-massaged limb compared with HS, but this did not prevent muscle loss. Overall, the data demonstrate that massage is not an effective mechanotherapy for prevention of atrophy during muscle disuse or recovery of muscle mass during reloading in aged rats.

按摩是一种可行的机械疗法，可改善废用性萎缩期间的蛋白质转换，并在成年肌肉废用性萎缩恢复期间改善肌肉再生。因此，我们研究了在正常负重 (WB) 条件、后肢悬吊 (HS) 或 HS 后重新加载 (RE) 期间，按摩是否会导致老年大鼠骨骼肌的有益适应。老年（30 个月）雄性 Fischer 344/Brown Norway 大鼠分为两个实验：（1）WB 7 天（WB，n  = 8），WB 按摩（WBM，n  = 8），HS 7 天（HS7 , n  = 8), 或带按摩的 HS (HSM, n  = 8), 和 (2) WB 14 天 (WB14, n  = 8), HS 14 天 (HS14, n  = 8), 重新加载 (RE, n = 10), 或在 HS 后 7 天内重新加载按摩 (REM, n  = 10)。氧化氘 (D ₂ O) 标记用于评估每组中的动态蛋白质和核糖体转换，并评估合成代谢信号通路。在 RE 或 WB 期间，按摩确实有合成代谢的好处。相比之下，与 HS 相比，HS 期间的按摩增强了被按摩肢体和对侧未按摩肢体的肌原纤维蛋白转换，但这并不能防止肌肉损失。总体而言，数据表明，按摩不是预防老年大鼠肌肉废用期间萎缩或肌肉质量恢复的有效机械疗法。