Author/Editor		Grubič, Z; Brank, M
Title		Pathophysiology of the glucocorticoid myopathy - a short review
Type		članek
Source		Basic Appl Myol
Vol. and No.		Letnik 2, št. 4
Publication year		1992
Volume		str. 261-8
Language		eng
Abstract		Chronic exposure to high doses of glucocorticoids leads to muscle wasting and to loss of its strength. The condition is known in clinical practice as glucocorticoid myopathy. Explanation of the pathophysiology of this myopathy necessitates answers to the following questions: 1. Is glucocorticoid myopathy caused primarily by the impaired excitation of the muscle fibre and/or impairment of excitation-contraction coupling or is it the result of metabolic changes in the skeletal muscle fibre affecting one or both of the other two functional compartments: contraction executing and energy providing compartment? 2. Is protein catabolism, which underlies muscle wasting the result of the decreased protein synthesis or increased protein degradation or both? Which mechanisms and reactions leading to the myopathic changes of the muscle fibre are we dealing with at the molecular level? In this paper an attempt has been made to provide a short information on how are the above questions answered today. In our study a good correlation was between the fall in total acetylcholinesterase activities in various muscles and the fall in their weights after chronic dexamethasone treatment. Acetylcholinesterase was therefore proposed as a model protein at investigations of the pathophysiological mechanism leading to the myopathic glucocorticoid effects.
Descriptors		GLUCOCORTICOIDS MUSCULAR DISEASES ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE DEXAMETHASONE ORGAN WEIGHT MUSCLES