Effect of exercise on physiological age-related change at mouse neuromuscular junctions

Waleed B. Alshuaib, Mohamed A. Fahim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

To determine the effect of endurance exercise on physiological age-related change at the mouse neuromuscular junction (NMJ), synaptic function was studied for extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus muscles of three C57BL/6J mouse groups, 1) young adult control (YC: 10 months), 2) old control (OC: 20 months), and 3) old mice which exercised (OE: 20 months) since young-adulthood. Electrophysiological properties were studied with intracellular recording techniques. Safety margin was studied by measuring indirect isometric twitch tension in different calcium concentrations. With sedentary aging, EDL and soleus quantal contents increased. Following aging combined with 10 months of exercise, the EDL quantal contents in OE and YC animals were similar. In contrast, soleus quantal content was greater in OE than in YC animals. Determined safety margins were OC>YC=OE for EDL, and OC=YC=OE for soleus. This is the first study to indicate that physiological age-related changes at NMJs of EDL and soleus muscles are affected differently by endurance exercise. Exercise prevented all physiological age-related changes in EDL NMJs but not in soleus NMJs, this suggests that EDL changes are associated with inactivity during aging, while soleus changes are "fundamental" age changes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-561
Number of pages7
JournalNeurobiology of Aging
Volume11
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1990
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Exercise
  • Neuromuscular junction
  • Synaptic plasticity
  • Transmitter release

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • Ageing
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Geriatrics and Gerontology

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