Abstract
Muscle function and exercise performance measures, such as muscle endurance capacity, maximal strength, chair stand score, gait speed, and Timed Up and Go score, are evaluated to diagnose sarcopenia and frailty in older individuals. Furthermore, intramuscular adipose tissue (IntraMAT) content increases with age. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity determines muscle metabolism and maintains muscle performance. This study aimed to investigate the association of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity with muscle function, exercise performance, and IntraMAT content in older individuals. Thirteen older men and women participated in this study. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was assessed by the recovery speed of muscle oxygen saturation after exercise using near-infrared spectroscopy from the medial gastrocnemius. We assessed two muscle functions, peak torque and time to task failure, and four sarcopenia-related exercise performances: handgrip strength, gait speed, 30-s chair stand, and Timed Up and Go. The IntraMAT content was measured using axial magnetic resonance imaging. The results showed a relationship between skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and gait speed but not with muscle functions and other exercise performance measures. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was not related to IntraMAT content. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity, which may be indicative of the capacity of muscle energy production in the mitochondria, is related to locomotive functions but not to other functional parameters or skeletal fat infiltration.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank all volunteers for their participation. The authors are also grateful to those who assisted with the MR data collection: Dr. Haruo Isoda and Mr. Akira Ishizuka (Brain & Mind Research Center, Nagoya University).
Funding
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number 20K19691, awarded to A.Y.
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Akito Yoshiko: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing—original draft preparation. Kana Shiozawa: data curation, writing, review and editing. Shiori Niwa: data curation, writing, reviewing, and editing. Hideyuki Takahashi: data curation, writing, reviewing, and editing. Teruhiko Koike: conceptualization, writing, reviewing, and editing. Kohei Watanabe: conceptualization, writing, review and editing. Keisho Katayama: conceptualization, methodology, writing, review and editing. Hiroshi Akima: conceptualization, methodology, writing, review and editing.
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Yoshiko, A., Shiozawa, K., Niwa, S. et al. Association of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity with muscle function, sarcopenia-related exercise performance, and intramuscular adipose tissue in older adults. GeroScience 46, 2715–2727 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-01043-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-01043-6