Effect of electrical stimulation of the thigh muscles on the level of interleukin-6 in traumatic injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint

Traumatic damage to the anterior cruciate ligament leads to impaired support and mechanical instability of the limb. One of the frequent complications after injury is arthrogenic muscle inhibition due to inhibition of the quadriceps muscle and the development of functional contracture. On the contrary, one of the indicators of high muscle activity is a sufficient level in the blood of functional muscle proteins – myokines, in particular interleukin-6, which are expressed and released by muscle fibers. The aim of the study was to study the level of interleukin-6 in men with damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in the dynamics of electromyostimulation of the quadriceps femoris. The study involved 23 men, mean age 34.8±2.2 years, with traumatic injury of the anterior cruciate ligament, who, 10 days before surgery, underwent electromyostimulation of the quadriceps femoris using the INTELECT® Advanced device (Chattanooga (DJO), USA). The control group consisted of 12 healthy men, mean age 32.2±2.4 years. The level of IL-6 was determined in the blood serum before electromyostimulation, and in dynamics using a kit for enzyme immunoassay (Vector-Best, Novosibirsk). The obtained data were processed using the Statistica licensed software package v. 10.0. The basal level of IL-6 in the main group was 1.28 (0.87-1.72) pg/mL, which is significantly lower than in healthy individuals 5.2 (3.8-6.1) pg/mL and is due to a low level of physical activity due to functional contracture of the quadriceps muscle. In the dynamics of electromyostimulation on the 5th day, the level of IL-6 significantly increased by 3.2 times from the basal level, on the 10th day by 4.6 times, while not exceeding that of the group of healthy individuals. With the reduction of myocytes, the concentration of myokine interleukin-6 increased in the cytoplasm of cells, which contributes to the accumulation of macroergs in the muscle cell, due to myokine-dependent activation of glycogenolysis. The reparative and anti-inflammatory properties of IL-6 are realized in stimulated striated muscles by the classical signaling mechanism that can block the activation of the universal intracellular transcription factor NF-κB in relation to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Thus, electromyostimulation before the start of surgical treatment leads to an increase in the concentration of myokine IL-6 in the blood, which contributes to an increase in the anti-inflammatory and reparative potential of damaged tissues.