Abstract Background Osteoporosis is a worldwide health issue. Loss of bone mass is a potential risk factor for fragility fractures, and osteoporotic fractures place a considerable burden on society. Bone and muscle represent a functional unit in which the two tissues are intimately interconnected. Ropivacaine is a potent local anesthetic used in clinical practice for intraoperative anesthesia and postoperative pain management, in particular for hip surgery. When injected, Ropivacaine can diffuse locally through, in particular in surrounding skeletal muscle tissue, causing dose-dependent cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and myogenesis impairment. Based on those evidences, we focused our attention on Ropivacaine-induced cytotoxicity on cultured human myoblasts. Methods Primary human myoblasts and myotubes from healthy subjects, osteoarthritic and osteoporotic patients (OP) were cultured in the presence of Ropivacaine. In some experiments, ascorbic acid (AsA) was added as a potent antioxidant agent. Cell viability and ROS levels were evaluated to investigate the myotoxic activity and Real-Time PCR and Western blot analysis carried out to investigate the expression of proliferation and myogenic markers. Results A dose-dependent decrease of cell viability was observed after Ropivacaine exposure in both OP myoblasts and myotubes cultures, whereas those effects were not observed in the presence of Propofol, a general anesthetic. The adding of AsA reduced Ropivacaine negative effects in OP myoblast cultures. In addition, Ropivacaine exposure also increased ROS levels and upregulated Nox4 expression, an enzyme primarily implicated in skeletal muscle ROS generation. AsA treatment counteracted the oxidant activity of Ropivacaine and partially restored the basal condition in cultures. Positive myogenic markers, such as MyoD and Myf5, were downregulated by Ropivacaine exposure, whereas myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle growth and differentiation, was upregulated. The phenotypic deregulation of myogenic controllers in the presence of Ropivacaine was counteracted by AsA treatment. Conclusions Our findings highlight the oxidative stress-mediated myotoxic effect of Ropivacaine on human skeletal muscle tissue cell cultures, and suggest treatment with AsA as valid strategy to mitigate its negative effects and allowing an ameliorated functional skeletal muscle recovery in patients undergoing hip replacement surgery for osteoporotic bone fracture.
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