Resistance Loading and Signaling Assays for Oxidative Stress in Rodent Skeletal Muscle

Resistance loading provides an important tool for understanding skeletal muscle responses and adaptations to various perturbations. A model using anesthetized rodents provides the means to control the input parameters carefully, and to measure the output parameters of each muscle contraction. Unilateral models of anesthetized loading also provide the advantage of comparing an unloaded and loaded muscle from the same animal. Voluntary models for resistance loading arguably provide a more “physiological response” but it also introduces more variability in the input parameters, which can be affected by the stimulus used to motivate the animal to exercise. After either acute or chronic periods of muscle loading, the loaded muscles can be removed and various signaling proteins can be determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) or enzyme assays. Several assays are described, which provide an indication of downstream markers for oxidative stress.