Preservation of muscle protein anabolism in master athletes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does lifelong exercise preserve muscle anabolic sensitivity in masters athletes?
IRAS ID
227643
Contact name
Leigh Breen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 29 days
Research summary
Ageing is characterized by a loss of muscle mass that is detrimental for physical function and metabolic health and increases the risk of mortality. The loss of muscle protein mass with ageing is characterized by a blunted muscle anabolic response to nutrition and exercise, which may be underpinned by inactivity. Thus, exercise interventions can reverse muscle anabolic blunting in old age and might assist in the long-term maintenance of muscle mass.
Currently, the most effective means by which to reverse muscle anabolic resistance and maintain muscle mass in old age are resistance-type exercise and/or the consumption of adequate protein-based nutrition. Individuals that have undertaken lifelong exercise (referred to as ‘master athletes’) do not experience the same degree of muscle loss and maintain a high level of function capacity into their later years. Thus, the study of master athletes offers a tantalising opportunity to investigate, and provide insight into, the extent to which sarcopenia is underpinned by biological age and inactivity. Master athletes do not appear to exhibit the same level of blunted responsiveness to anabolic stimuli as age-matched individuals; however this ‘off-setting’ of the sarcopenia trajectory is yet to be confirmed. Therefore, we will test whether or not muscle anabolic resistance, and thus sarcopenia, may not necessarily be an artefact of biological ageing per se but of ageing superimposed on a background of declining activity.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0004
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion