In this study, we investigated the effects of a short‐term and long‐term high‐fat diet (HFD) on morphological and functional features of fast‐twitch skeletal muscle. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a HFD (60% fat) for 4 weeks (4‐week HFD) or 12 weeks (12‐week HFD). Subsequently, the fast‐twitch extensor digitorum longus muscle was isolated, and the composition of muscle fiber type, expression levels of proteins involved in muscle contraction, and force production on electrical stimulation were analyzed. The 12‐week HFD, but not the 4‐week HFD, resulted in a decreased muscle tetanic force on 100 Hz stimulation compared with control (5.1 ± 1.4 N/g in the 12‐week HFD vs. 7.5 ± 1.7 N/g in the control group; P < 0.05), whereas muscle weight and cross‐sectional area were not altered after both HFD protocols. Morphological analysis indicated that the percentage of type IIx myosin heavy chain fibers, mitochondrial oxidative enzyme activity, and intramyocellular lipid levels increased in the 12‐week HFD group, but not in the 4‐week HFD group, compared with controls (P < 0.05). No changes in the expression levels of calcium handling‐related proteins and myofibrillar proteins (myosin heavy chain and actin) were detected in the HFD models, whereas fast‐troponin T‐protein expression was decreased in the 12‐week HFD group, but not in the 4‐week HFD group (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that a long‐term HFD, but not a short‐term HFD, impairs contractile force in fast‐twitch muscle fibers. Given that skeletal muscle strength largely depends on muscle fiber type, the impaired muscle contractile force by a HFD might result from morphological changes of fiber type composition.
Our data indicate that the altered temperature increased phosphorylation in a temperature-dependent manner in rat skeletal muscle and may itself be a key stimulator of Akt/mTOR signalling.
This study investigated the effect of heat stress (HS) on mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling involved in translation initiation after resistance exercise in human skeletal muscle. Eight young male subjects performed four sets of six maximal repetitions of knee extension exercises, with or without HS, in a randomized crossover design. HS was applied to the belly of the vastus lateralis by using a microwave therapy unit prior to and during exercise. Muscle biopsies were taken from the vastus lateralis before, immediately after, and 1 h after exercise. HS significantly increased the phosphorylation of Akt/PKB, mTOR, and ribosomal protein S6 at 1 h after exercise (P < 0.05), and the 4E-BP1 phosphorylation level, which had initially decreased with exercise, had recovered by 1 h after exercise with HS. In addition, the phosphorylation of ribosomal S6 kinase 1 was significantly increased immediately after exercise with HS (P < 0.05). These results indicate that HS enhances mTOR signaling after resistance exercise in human skeletal muscle.
Extended periods of skeletal muscle disuse results in muscle atrophy and weakness. Currently, no therapeutic treatment is available for the prevention of this problem. Nonetheless, growing evidence suggests that prevention of disuse-induced oxidative stress in inactive muscle fibers can delay inactivity-induced muscle wasting. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with the antioxidant astaxanthin would protect against disuse muscle atrophy, in part, by prevention of myonuclear apoptosis. Wistar rats (8 weeks old) were divided into control (CT, n = 9), hindlimb unloading (HU, n = 9), and hindlimb unloading with astaxanthin (HU + AX, n = 9) groups. Following 2 weeks of dietary supplementation, rats in the HU and HU + AX groups were exposed to unloading for 7 days. Seven-day unloading resulted in reduced soleus muscle weight and myofiber cross-sectional area (CSA) by ~30 and ~47 %, respectively. Nonetheless, relative muscle weights and CSA of the soleus muscle in the HU + AX group were significantly greater than those of the HU group. Moreover, astaxanthin prevented disuse-induced increase in the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive nuclei. We conclude that astaxanthin supplementation prior to and during hindlimb unloading attenuates soleus muscle atrophy, in part, by suppressing myonuclear apoptosis.
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