Timing of the administration of suramin treatment after muscle injury.

Introduction: It has been reported that suramin treatment can improve muscle healing; however, details about optimizing the dosing requirements remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal timing of suramin administration and investigate the effects it had on the expression of myostatin, follistatin, and muscle vascularity after muscle injury. Methods: Contusion injured muscles of mice were treated with suramin at 1, 2, or 3 weeks post-injury and evaluated histologically and physiologically at 1, 2, and 10 days after injection. Results: Suramin treatment initiated at 2 weeks post-injury was observed to promote muscle regeneration and muscle strength, and to decrease fibrosis. Suramin reduced myostatin expression and increased follistatin expression and vascularity in injured skeletal muscle. Conclusions: Suramin's positive effect on muscle regeneration is thought to be due to its enhancement of follistatin expression which increases neoangiogenesis and inhibits myostatin's promotion of fibrosis. Muscle Nerve 46: 7079, 2012