Basal, but not overload-induced, myonuclear addition is attenuated by NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) administration.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of blocking nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity via NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) on myonuclear addition in skeletal muscle under basal and overloaded conditions. Female Sprague–Dawley rats (approx. 220 g) were placed into 1 of the following 4 groups (n = 7–9/group): 7-day skeletal muscle overload (O), sham operation (S), skeletal muscle overload with l-NAME treatment (OLN), and sham operation with l-NAME treatment (SLN). Plantaris muscles were overloaded via bilateral surgical ablation of the gastrocnemius muscles and l-NAME (0.75 mg/mL) was administered in the animals’ daily drinking water starting 2 days prior to surgery and continued until sacrifice. Myonuclear addition was assessed as subsarcolemmal incorporation of nuclei labeled with 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (approx. 25 mg·(kg body mass)–1·day–1) delivered via osmotic pump during the overload period. As expected, muscle wet mass, total protein content, fiber cross-sectional area, and m...