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Relationship of Physical Frailty to Phosphocreatine Recovery in Muscle after Mild Exercise Stress in the Oldest-Old Women

  • Original Research
  • Biology of Frailty
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Abstract

Background

Physical frailty is a clinical syndrome associated with aging and manifesting as slowness, weakness, reduced physical activity, weight loss, and/or exhaustion. Frail older adults often report that their major problem is “low energy”, and there is indirect evidence to support the hypothesis that frailty is a syndrome of dysregulated energetics. We hypothesized that altered cellular energy production underlies compromised response to stressors in the frail.

Methods

We conducted a pilot study to assess muscle energetics in response to a mild isometric exercise challenge in women (n=30) ages 84–93 years. The frailty status was assessed by a validated physical frailty instrument. Localized phosphorus (P31) magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a 1.5T magnet was used to assess the kinetics of Phosphocreatine recovery in the tibialis anterior muscle following maximal isometric contraction for 30 seconds.

Results

Phosphocreatine recovery following exertion, age-adjusted, was slowest in the frail group (mean=189 sec; 95%CI: 150,228) compared to pre-frail (mean=152 sec; 95%CI: 107,197) and nonfrail subjects (mean=132 sec; 95%CI: 40,224). The pre-frail and frail groups had 20 sec (95%CI: −49,89) and 57 sec (95%CI: −31,147) slower phosphocreatine recovery, respectively, than the non-frail. This response was paralleled by dysregulation in glucose recovery in response to oral glucose tolerance test in women from the same study population.

Conclusions

Impaired muscle energetics and energy metabolism might be implicated in the physical frailty syndrome.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by MERIT Award to Dr. Fried from The National Institute on Aging R37-AG19905. We acknowledge and honor the contributions and leadership of Dr. Richard Suzman at NIA who believed in supporting cutting edge gerontologic research. Dr. Varadhan would also like to acknowledge funding from the grant: NCI P30 CA006973.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    Ravi Varadhan

  2. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    Ravi Varadhan, J. Huang, R. R. Kalyani, Q. -L. Xue & K. Bandeen-Roche

  3. School of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, USA

    D. W. Russ

  4. University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA

    R. E. Gabr

  5. Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    R. R. Kalyani & Q. -L. Xue

  6. Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

    A. R. Cappola

  7. Department of Biostatistics, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    K. Bandeen-Roche

  8. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA

    L. P. Fried

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  1. Ravi Varadhan
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  2. D. W. Russ
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  3. R. E. Gabr
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  4. J. Huang
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  5. R. R. Kalyani
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  6. Q. -L. Xue
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  7. A. R. Cappola
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  8. K. Bandeen-Roche
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  9. L. P. Fried
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravi Varadhan.

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Conflict of Interest: None declared by the authors.

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Varadhan, R., Russ, D.W., Gabr, R.E. et al. Relationship of Physical Frailty to Phosphocreatine Recovery in Muscle after Mild Exercise Stress in the Oldest-Old Women. J Frailty Aging 8, 162–168 (2019). https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2019.21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14283/jfa.2019.21

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