Resveratrol promotes hypertrophy in wildtype skeletal muscle and reduces muscle necrosis and gene expression of inflammatory markers in Mdx mice

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive fatal neuromuscular disorder with no cure. Therapies to restore dystrophin deficiency have been approved in some jurisdictions but long-term effectiveness is yet to be established. There is a need to develop alternative strategies to treat DMD. Resveratrol is a nutraceutical with anti-inflammatory properties. Previous studies have shown high doses (100–400 mg/kg bodyweight/day) benefit mdx mice. We treated 4-week-old mdx and wild type mice with a lower dose of resveratrol (5 mg/kg bodyweight/day) for 15 weeks.Voluntary exercise was used to test if a lower dosage than previously tested could reduce exercise-induced damage where a greater inflammatory infiltrate is present. We found resveratrol promoted skeletal muscle hypertrophy in wild type mice. In dystrophic muscle, resveratrol reduced exercise-induced muscle necrosis. Gene expression of immune cell markers, CD86 and CD163 were reduced;however, signalling targets associated with resveratrol’s mechanism of action including Sirt1 andNF-κB were unchanged. In conclusion, a lower dose of resveratrol compared to the dosage used by other studies reduced necrosis and gene expression of inflammatory cell markers in dystrophic muscle suggesting it as a therapeutic candidate for treating DMD.