Sarcomere lesion damage occurs mainly in slow fibers of reloaded rat adductor longus muscles

Sarcomerelesions were previously observed with reloading of rat adductor longusmuscles after spaceflight and hindlimb unloading (HU).Spaceflown rats displayed more lesioned fibers in the"slow-fiber" region, suggesting a damage-susceptible fiber type.Unloading induces fast myosin expression in some slow fibers,generating hybrid fibers. We examined whether lesion damage differedamong slow-, hybrid-, and fast-fiber types in HU-reloaded adductorlongus muscles. Temporal HU for 5, 8, 11, 14, and 17 days revealed that hybrid fiber percent, detected by antimyosin immunostaining, peaked at29 ± 12% by 14 days. A 14-day HU followed by 12-14 h ofvoluntary reloading was performed to induce lesions.² analysis showed that slowfibers were preferentially damaged, accounting for 92 ± 5% oflesioned fibers; hybrid and fast fibers accounted for 7 ± 4 and<0.5%, respectively. Atrophy did not explain differential lesiondamage across fiber types, as slow and hybrid fibers atrophied to asimilar extent. Because active myofiber contractions are requisite forlesion formation, selective recruitment of slow fibers most likelyexplains their damage susceptibility.