Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anti-Fatigue Effects of Methazolamide in High-Altitude Hypoxic Mice

Gang Zhang^1,3 , Si-Min Zhou^1,3, Jun-Huai Tian^1,3, Qing-Yuan Huang^2,4, Yu-Qi Gao^2,4

¹Department of High Altitude Military Hygiene, College of High Altitude Military Medicine, Third Military Medical University; ²Key Laboratory of High Altitude Medicine, Ministry of Education; ³The Key Laboratory of High Altitude Physiology and High Altitude Disease, PLA; ⁴Department of Pathophysiology and High Altitude Physiology, College of High Altitude Military Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.

For correspondence:- Gang Zhang Email: gangzhangtmmu@yahoo.cn Tel:+862368752319

Received: 12 July 2011 Accepted: 29 February 2012 Published: 24 April 2012

Citation: Zhang G, Zhou S, Tian J, Huang Q, Gao Y. Anti-Fatigue Effects of Methazolamide in High-Altitude Hypoxic Mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(2):209-215 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i2.6

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the anti-fatigue property of methazolamide (MTZ) in high-altitude anoxic mice.

Methods: Mice fatigued by high-altitude hypoxia were housed in a hypobaric chamber (equivalent to a low pressure chamber of 5000 m altitude) for 10 consecutive days. The anti-fatigue property of MTZ was evaluated by exhaustive swimming test, determination of blood concentration of lactic acid and sugar as well as blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and liver glycogen.

Results: Our findings indicate that the administration of MTZ can prolong swimming capacity time and improve exercise tolerance as well as increase the content of liver glycogen, reduce the level of lactic acid in muscles, when compared with anoxic control group. MTZ also delayed the accumulation of BUN, compared with anoxic control.

Conclusion: The results show that MTZ has anti-fatigue effects in mice, and further suggest that it is a potential novel remedy for fatigue due to high-altitude hypoxia.

Keywords: Methazolamide; Anti-fatigue; Exhaustive exercise; High-altitude hypoxia