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Effects of concentric and repeated eccentric exercise on muscle damage and calpain–calpastatin gene expression in human skeletal muscle

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the responsiveness of changes in Ca2+-content and calpain–calpastatin gene expression to concentric and eccentric single-bout and repeated exercise. An exercise group (n = 14) performed two bouts of bench-stepping exercise with 8 weeks between exercise bouts, and was compared to a control-group (n = 6). Muscle strength and soreness and plasma creatine kinase and myoglobin were measured before and during 7 days following exercise bouts. Muscle biopsies were collected from m. vastus lateralis of both legs prior to and at 3, 24 h and 7 days after exercise and quantified for muscle Ca2+-content and mRNA levels for calpain isoforms and calpastatin. Exercise reduced muscle strength and increased muscle soreness predominantly in the eccentric leg (P < 0.05). These responses as well as plasma levels of creatine kinase and myoglobin were all attenuated after the repeated eccentric exercise bout (P < 0.05). Total muscle Ca2+-content did not differ between interventions. mRNA levels for calpain 2 and calpastatin were upregulated exclusively by eccentric exercise 24 h post-exercise (P < 0.05), with no alteration in expression between bouts. Calpain 1 and calpain 3 mRNA did not change at any specific time point post-exercise for either intervention. Our mRNA results suggest a regulation on the calpain–calpastatin expression response to muscle damaging eccentric exercise, but not concentric exercise. Although a repeated bout effect was demonstrated in terms of muscle function, no immediate support was provided to suggest that regulation of expression of specific system components is involved in the repeated bout adaptation.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the Danish Health Research Agency (grants no. 22-04-0454), the Ministry of Culture (grant no. 2004-05-029), the NovoNordisk Foundation, Hovedstadens Sygehusfaellesskab and the Medical Faculty at the University of Copenhagen. Furthermore, we would like to thank Thorsten Ingemann Hansen for clinical assistance and Anne Mette Kloster for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sport Science, University of Aarhus, Dalgas Avenue 4, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Kristian Vissing & Kristian Overgaard

  2. Institute of Sports Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anders Nedergaard

  3. Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Anne Fredsted

  4. Department of Molecular Muscle Biology, Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anders Nedergaard & Peter Schjerling

  5. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Peter Schjerling

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  1. Kristian Vissing
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Correspondence to Kristian Vissing.

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Vissing, K., Overgaard, K., Nedergaard, A. et al. Effects of concentric and repeated eccentric exercise on muscle damage and calpain–calpastatin gene expression in human skeletal muscle. Eur J Appl Physiol 103, 323–332 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0709-7

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