Bradykinin and nerve growth factor play pivotal roles in muscular mechanical hyperalgesia after exercise (delayed-onset muscle soreness)
Two articles on PainSci cite Murase 2010: 1. A Deep Dive into Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness 2. Massage Does Not Reduce Inflammation
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Unaccustomed strenuous exercise that includes lengthening contraction (LC) often causes delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), a kind of muscular mechanical hyperalgesia. The substances that induce this phenomenon are largely unknown. Peculiarly, DOMS is not perceived during and shortly after exercise, but rather is first perceived after approximately 1 d. Using B(2) bradykinin receptor antagonist HOE 140, we show here that bradykinin released during exercise plays a pivotal role in triggering the process that leads to muscular mechanical hyperalgesia. HOE 140 completely suppressed the development of muscular mechanical hyperalgesia when injected before LC, but when injected 2 d after LC failed to reverse mechanical hyperalgesia that had already developed. B(1) antagonist was ineffective, regardless of the timing of its injection. Upregulation of nerve growth factor (NGF) mRNA and protein occurred in exercised muscle over a comparable time course (12 h to 2 d after LC) for muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Antibodies to NGF injected intramuscularly 2 d after exercise reversed muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. HOE 140 inhibited the upregulation of NGF. In contrast, shortening contraction or stretching induced neither mechanical hyperalgesia nor NGF upregulation. Bradykinin together with shortening contraction, but not bradykinin alone, reproduced lasting mechanical hyperalgesia. We also showed that rat NGF sensitized thin-fiber afferents to mechanical stimulation in the periphery after 10-20 min. Thus, NGF upregulation through activation of B(2) bradykinin receptors is essential (though not satisfactory) to mechanical hyperalgesia after exercise. The present observations explain why DOMS occurs with a delay, and why lengthening contraction but not shortening contraction induces DOMS.
related content
- “Decreased nerve growth factor upregulation is a mechanism for reduced mechanical hyperalgesia after the second bout of exercise in rats,” Urai et al, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2013.
- “Upregulated glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor through cyclooxygenase-2 activation in the muscle is required for mechanical hyperalgesia after exercise in rats,” Murase et al, Journal of Physiology, 2013.
- “Delayed onset muscle soreness: Involvement of neurotrophic factors,” Mizumura et al, J Physiol Sci, 2016.
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