Optimal Treatment of Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury

Acute muscle strain injuries occur both during sports, in leisure time activities and during manual occupation and represent a major clinical challenge and has societal economic costs. The recovery time is long and a substantial injury recurrence is observed. Despite current best evidence rehabilitation with early mechanical loading, a significant loss of muscle mass, fatty infiltration and formation of scar tissue is reported. Animal models and human in vitro experiments suggest that inflammation is vital in the early period after an injury, however an inhibition of inflammatory processes is beneficial for healing. We investigate here whether a pharmacological inhibition of inflammatory pathways in the 2nd week following a muscle strain injury will provide a better clinical outcome and an advantageous cellular profile than rehabilitative training alone would.