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The Skeletal Muscle Response to Energy Deficiency: A Life History Perspective

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Abstract

Energy is a finite resource that is competitively distributed among the body’s systems and biological processes. During times of scarcity, energetic “trade-offs” may arise if less energy is available than is required to optimally sustain all systems. More immediately essential functions are predicted to be prioritized, even if this necessitates the diversion of energy away from – and potential downregulation of – others. These concepts are encompassed within life history theory, an evolutionary framework with considerable potential to enhance understanding of the evolved biological response to periods of energy deficiency. Skeletal muscle is a particularly interesting tissue to investigate from this perspective, given that it is one of the largest and most energetically costly tissues within the body. It is also highly plastic, responsive to a broad range of stimuli, and contributes to many essential bodily functions, e.g., mechanical, regulatory and storage. These functions may be traded off against each other during periods of energy deficiency, with the nature of the trade-off’s dependent on the characteristics of the individual and the circumstances within which the deficit occurs. In this review, we consider the skeletal muscle response to periods of energy deficiency from a life history perspective, along with how this response may be influenced by factors including sex, age, body composition, training and nutritional status.

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Data Availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Notes

  1. The studies cited throughout this review use a range of terms and assessments of muscle mass and its main proxies, including lean mass and fat-free mass, with the most common assessment type being DXA. Although these outcomes are distinct from each other, the skeletal muscle comprises the major portion of both lean and fat-free mass, and is the most plastic element, meaning that any changes recorded in these outcomes are likely reflective of skeletal muscle mass changes. For this reason and for improved readability, we will use the term skeletal muscle mass throughout.

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Funding

Eimear Dolan (2019/05616-6 and 2019/26899-6), Bryan Saunders (2016/50438-0) and Gersiel Oliveira (2020/07540-4) are financially supported by the Fundação de Ampara a Pesquisa do Estado do São Paulo (FAPESP). Bryan Saunders has received a grant from Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (2020.1.362.5.2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Physiology & Nutrition Research Group, School of Physical Education and Sport, Rheumatology Division, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Gersiel Oliveira-Junior, Rafaela S. Pinto, Bryan Saunders, Hamilton Roschel & Eimear Dolan

  2. Division of GI, Hepatology and Nutrition, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Meghan K. Shirley

  3. School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Daniel P. Longman

  4. Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Karsten Koehler

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  1. Gersiel Oliveira-Junior
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Oliveira-Junior, G., Pinto, R.S., Shirley, M.K. et al. The Skeletal Muscle Response to Energy Deficiency: A Life History Perspective. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 8, 114–129 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-021-00182-4

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