Enduring Effects of Acute Prenatal Ischemia in Rat Soleus Muscle, and Protective Role of Erythropoietin

Motor disorders are considered to originate mainly from brain lesions. Placental dysfunction or maternal exposure to a persistently hypoxic environment is a major cause of further motor disorders such as cerebral palsy. Our main goal was to determine the long-term effects of mild intrauterine acute ischemic stress on rat soleus myofibres and whether erythropoietin treatment could prevent these changes. Rat embryos were subjected to ischemic stress at embryonic day E17. They then received an intraperitoneal erythropoietin injection at postnatal days 1-5. Soleus muscles were collected at postnatal day 28. Prenatal ischemic stress durably affected muscle structure, as indicated by the greater fiber cross-sectional area (+ 18%) and the greater number of mature vessels (i.e. vessels with mature endothelial cells) per myofibres (+ 43%), and muscle biochemistry, as shown by changes in signaling pathways involved in protein synthesis/degradation balance (-81% for 4EBP1; -58% for AKT) and Hif1α expression levels (+ 95%). Erythropoietin injection in ischemic pups had a weak protective effect: it increased muscle mass (+ 25% with respect to ischemic pups) and partially prevented the increase in muscle degradation pathways and mature vascularization, whereas it exacerbated the decrease in synthesis pathways. Hence, erythropoietin treatment after acute ischemic stress contributes to muscle adaptation to ischemic conditions.