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Effect of 5 weeks horizontal bed rest on human muscle thickness and architecture of weight bearing and non-weight bearing muscles

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in thickness, fascicle length (L f) and pennation angle (θ) of the antigravity gastrocnemius medialis (GM) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles, and the non-antigravity tibialis anterior (TA) and biceps brachii (BB) muscles measured by ultrasonography in ten healthy males (aged 22.3 ± 2.2 years) in response to 5 weeks of horizontal bed rest (BR). After BR, muscle thickness decreased by 12.2 ± 8.8% (P < 0.05) and 8.0 ± 9.1% (P < 0.005) in the GM and VL, respectively. No changes were observed in the TA and BB muscles. L f and θ decreased by 4.8 ± 5.0% (P < 0.05) and 14.3 ± 6.8% (P < 0.005) in the GM and by 5.9 ± 5.3% (P < 0.05) and 13.5 ± 16.2% (P < 0.005) in the VL, again without any changes in the TA and BB muscles. The finding that amongst the antigravity muscles of the lower limbs, the GM deteriorated to a greater extent than the VL is possibly related to the differences in relative load that this muscle normally experiences during daily loading. The dissimilar response in antigravity and non-antigravity muscles to unloading likely reflects differences in loading under normal conditions. The significant structural alterations of the GM and VL muscles highlight the rapid remodelling of muscle architecture occurring with disuse.

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Notes

  1. Assuming that all other conditions remain constant (see comments on tendon below), the degree of sarcomere shortening is different in fascicles that contain more sarcomeres in series (i.e. longer fascicles) than in fascicles that contain fewer sarcomeres in series (i.e. shorter fascicles) during an isometric contraction in which the muscle shortens to a certain length, the shorter fascicle (containing fewer sarcomeres in series) shortens by a smaller amount than the longer fascicle to reach the same absolute contracted muscle length; that is: to reach the same absolute muscle-tendon complex length, each sarcomere of the longer fibre will have to shorten more than the sarcomere of a shorter fibre. Therefore, the removal of sarcomeres in series would result in a right shift of the sarcomere length-tension relationship (Gans and Bock 1965). The effect of this reduced sarcomere shortening on the force production of the muscle depends upon whether the muscle operates at the plateau region, the ascending or descending limb of the force–length relationship at that muscle-tendon length (or joint angle) (Gordon et al. 1966). If the muscle operates close to the optimum region (L0, i.e. resting length), then reduced sarcomere sortening will cause the sarcomere to operate further away from its optimum length. It has been shown that in vivo the VL operates across the optimum region and the early portion of the descending limb (Reeves et al. 2004). It may be thus put forward that a decrease in sarcomere number would result in lesser fascicle shortening (i.e. the sarcomere would be at a longer length) which would shift the sarcomere-length tension relation to the right, away from the optimum length. However, it is known that tendon stiffness decreases with prolonged unloading (Reeves et al. 2005; de Boer et al. 2007), which would cause a left-shift of the sarcomere length–tension relationship. This adaptation may partly mitigate the effect of reduced fascicle length on muscle force production.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are particularly grateful to the participants for their enduring efforts. The medical assistance and technical support of the Orthopaedic Hospital Valdoltra staff is also greatly acknowledged. The project was funded, in part, by Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instititute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health (IRM), Manchester Metropolitan University, Alsager, ST7 2HL, UK

    Maarten D. de Boer, Olivier R. Seynnes & Marco V. Narici

  2. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Technology, University of Udine, Piazzale Kolbe 4, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Pietro E. di Prampero

  3. Institute of Kinesiology Research, Science and research centre of Koper, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

    Rado Pišot

  4. Department of Automation, Biocybernetivs and Robotics, Josef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Igor B. Mekjavić

  5. Department of Clinical, Morphological and Technological Sciences, Division of Internal Medicine, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Gianni Biolo

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  1. Maarten D. de Boer
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Correspondence to Maarten D. de Boer.

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de Boer, M.D., Seynnes, O.R., di Prampero, P.E. et al. Effect of 5 weeks horizontal bed rest on human muscle thickness and architecture of weight bearing and non-weight bearing muscles . Eur J Appl Physiol 104, 401–407 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0703-0

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