ИСТИНА

Clinical examination of women abusing alcohol and analyses of the reasons for changes occurring in muscle tissue were carried out. In the study methods of electromyography, magnetic resonance imaging, western-blotting, immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR were used. Using the method of magnetic resonance imaging, we for the first time established that degenerative changes in women, abusing alcohol, are more pronounced in the posterior muscles of the femur and tibia than in the anterior group of muscles. Thus, we identified the groups of muscles subjected to the greatest impact of alcohol intoxication. It will help us to develop new preventive measures for the most affected muscles. We for the first time showed that 1) among women abusing alcohol, muscle atrophy occurs much faster than in men and the atrophy is more pronounced. Both fast and slow muscle fibers are affected. The period of development of atrophic processes is much shorter than in male patients. The causes and mechanisms of the development of alcohol-induced atrophy of skeletal muscles were discovered. 2) In women the anabolic mTORC1 signaling pathway is damaged to a greater extent than ERK1/2. 3) In women abusing alcohol, signaling system of the protein degradation works more intensely than in men. Calpain1 content and the ubiquitylation of proteins are higher than in the control group. This may be the reason for the more rapid and profound atrophy of skeletal muscle in women who abuse alcohol. This finding is important for the development of (i) prevention systems against the lowering of working capacity and (ii) pharmacological and physiological methods for correction of atrophic processes in skeletal muscle in a socially significant disease, such as alcoholic myopathy. The work was supported by Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 14-15-00392