Mitochondrial Adaptations in Elderly and Young Men Skeletal Muscle Following 2 Weeks of Bed Rest and Rehabilitation

In conclusion, data from our analyses of the effects of aging on expression of a number of mitochondria-related genes relevant in the context of the proteins analyzed in our bed-rest study prompt us to highlight that immobility should be more critical for mitochondrial efficiency and energy production in case of people more aged than our elderly subjects. Indeed, we might infer that the trend of the effects documented by our bed-rest study should go on with age. Study Limitations The limited number of subjects enrolled in our study may weaken its outcomes. Nevertheless, this is a consequence of logistical limitations, which are intrinsic to this type of studies. Specifically, this is a very complex study performed with two populations of subjects (Y and E) and three muscle biopsies per subject, one of them obtained after 14 days of bed-rest and another one after 14 days of supervised exercise program. From a statistical standpoint, limitations are mainly related to the uneven sample size of the groups (7 Y and 16 E subjects) and particularly to the more restricted size of Y group that impact on statistical power to detect differences at some points. In addition, only limited amounts of tissue specimens from the muscle biopsies were available for our experiments, due to the numerous participants to the bed-rest campaign where our study was comprised. This reduced the numb
Source: Frontiers in Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research