Effects of acute energy deficit and aerobic exercise on muscle quality
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the combined effect of acute energy deficit and aerobic exercise training on muscle quality in healthy adult males.
IRAS ID
289632
Contact name
Jose Areta
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 19 days
Research summary
The obesity epidemic is a major public-health threat and more than 700 million people world-wide urgently require successful strategies for weight loss. Poorly designed weight-loss strategies lead to impaired muscle mass and can also further impair health of individuals with metabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetics. Improving skeletal muscle function and metabolic capacity through nutrition and exercise is key to counteracting metabolic disorders during weight-loss. However, the effect of concomitant energy restriction and aerobic exercise on skeletal-muscle quality in humans is poorly characterised.
Mitochondria content is the key determinant of muscle oxidative capacity and losses in mitochondrial quality are linked to metabolic diseases. Aerobic exercise is a well-established stimulus to increase mitochondrial function. Additionally, energy restriction may increase the recycling of muscle mitochondria; thereby improving the quality and metabolic capacity of muscle, resulting in improved metabolic health. Evidence suggests both energy restriction and aerobic exercise enhance skeletal muscle function, however, no study has directly investigated the combined impact of energy restriction and aerobic exercise on skeletal muscle metabolism in humans.
This study aims to investigate how caloric restriction added to aerobic exercise improves skeletal muscle metabolism and function; specifically determining how this can enhance skeletal muscle quality by improving mitochondrial metabolism and the intracellular lipid droplet profile.
To achieve this, an in-depth analysis of the metabolic and skeletal muscle responses after two 5-day intervention periods of controlled aerobic exercise and dietary intake will be performed. One intervention will provide enough energy to maintain weight (energy balance) whilst the other will result in weight-loss (energy deficit). Novel proteomic-based analysis will be used to determine rates of synthesis, abundance and degradation of individual intracellular proteins in skeletal muscle. The intracellular structural changes of lipid droplets and the localisation of key proteins in the lipid droplets will be characterised through immunofluorescence microscopy.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0205
Date of REC Opinion
4 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion