Steroids May Improve Tendon Repair After Surgery

[Beelzebub]

Steroids May Improve Tendon Repair After Surgery

Reuters Health

By Merritt McKinney

Thursday, July 1, 2004


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Anabolic steroids are against the rules for professional athletes, but preliminary research suggests that steroids may help repair a shoulder injury that affects many professional and weekend athletes.

In lab experiments using bioengineered tendons, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that tendons treated with an anabolic steroid were stronger than untreated tendons.

"In a highly experimental model, anabolic steroids do appear to improve the quality of rotator cuff tendon tissue," lead author Dr. Spero G. Karas told Reuters Health.

Most likely, steroids help by improving protein production in each tendon cell or by boosting the way tendon cells communicate with each other, Karas said.

But don't expect doctors to start prescribing anabolic steroids to people who have rotator cuff surgery any time soon. Karas cautioned that much more testing needs to be done.

"If enough testing can conclude that this treatment is effective, then of course we could attempt it in humans with difficult rotator cuff injuries," Karas said.

The rotator cuff is made up of the muscles and tendons that hold the upper arm bone to the shoulder. When the rotator cuff is injured, surgery may be performed to repair it. Unfortunately, healing after surgery is often incomplete and many people experience repeat rotator cuff injuries.

Anabolic steroids are known to build muscle mass and boost strength, so Karas and his colleagues set out to see whether steroids might improve rotator cuff healing.

The research involved bioengineered tendons developed by co-author Dr. Albert J. Banes. The researchers collected tendon samples from six people who were having rotator cuff surgery. Cells from these tendons were isolated and used to grow the bioengineered tendons.

Some of these tendons were treated with the anabolic steroid nandrolone decanoate, while others were not. Some tendons were also subjected to load testing, in which the tendons were stretched.

Tendons that had been treated with steroids and subjected to loading were stronger, denser and more elastic than other tendons, the researchers report in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The steroid-treated tendons also had a more natural appearance than other tendons.

The research will not have an immediate impact on the treatment of rotator cuff injuries, but the research establishes a way to test the effect of mechanical stress and medications on tendon cells, Karas said.

"Any drug can be tested, but we chose an anabolic agent because of its successful background in treating patients with burns and other injuries," Karas said.

Another potential implication of the research, according to Karas, is that it "may permit us to manufacture a matrix of tissue that can be used to replace deficient human tissues."

Karas noted, "We are only in the embryonic phases of this work. We are a long way off, but the potential is exciting."

SOURCE: American Journal of Sports Medicine, June 2004.

[Beelzebub]

Comments anyone???

[supersoldier]

I had Arthroscopic Bankhardt repair of my left rotator cuff in July 2003. Since then I've been through a whole lot of cycles, and my left shoulder is great. In fact it's a lot better than my right shoulder now.

[Stingray]

Cool article Beelz,


I read it to my wife. She's a nurse and thinks she knows everything medical. She always gives me the evil eye when I talk about Ph's/Steroids .

It's good to see positive articles on the benifical uses of steroids.

[Ghostmaster]

I had read and posted this on another forum. How I had stumbled on this article was that I had hurt my right shoulder during a workout. After about 3 days of pain an no sleep I went to the Doctor. Yea I tore my rotator cuff, Doc said it was a small tear couple weeks rest and I'll be OK. Look I'm in the middle of a cycle I don't want to take two weeks off now....Any ways I read the article and started applying my transdemal to just the injury site...hell what did I have to lose. That was last week I have gone from not being able to lift my arm to lifting pain free. I don't know if the transdermal therapy or what who knows....Maybe the Doctor misdiagnosed. One of the reasons I tried it was that it indicated nandrolone decanoate, my transdermal is 1-Test , 1-4 Andro and 4AD.

Thats my story...

[csly]

I saw on another board(steroid . com) an article that stated that var(increases collagen synthesis by 620%), eq(by 800%), and it said that winny increased collagen synthesis so much that your body had to break down the increased connective tissue, a natural body reponse or something. It also said that test decreased collagen synthesis by like 400%. This is a very important subject for athletes, because they need strong connective tissues. By the way the article had no references. I have tried researching this and could find no studies that prove anything one way or the other. I am going to look into it alot more.

[handzilla]

Ghost, which transdermal product is this?

[Ghostmaster]

Homegrew....

[handzilla]

Homegrew....

Can I have the recipe?