To test their hypothesis, the researchers first required six of their 13 subjects to walk for 45 minutes on a treadmill quickly enough to keep their hearts beating at 70 percent of their maximum rate the same aerobic intensity level recommended to maintain cardiovascular fitness. The other seven subjects simply rested.

On the following morning, the researchers sampled the blood going into and coming out of thigh muscle in each of the volunteers, while supplying via the femoral artery a concentration of insulin similar to that released after a typical meal. They also took three small muscle tissue samples from each subject.

Tracer techniques enabled the scientists to track amino acids (the building blocks of muscle proteins) and determine muscle-protein synthesis and breakdown rates from the blood and muscle samples, while measuring blood flow at the same time. These revealed that the volunteers who exercised had both higher blood flow and net muscle protein growth. In addition, the researchers screened the muscle biopsy samples for signals associated with insulin's ability to stimulate the assembly of muscle protein from amino acids. This test also showed that exercise boosted insulin's role as a muscle protein growth factor.

"We already know that moderate aerobic exercise reduces cardiovascular disease, improves glucose uptake, and improves endurance," Volpi said. "Now it looks like it may also slow the rate of muscle loss in aging. We need to test this hypothesis further with larger trials, but still, it's one more reason why elderly people ought to be regularly walking, swimming or cycling."

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Contact: Jim Kelly
jpkelly@utmb.edu
409-772-8791
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
30-May-2007