ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Human skeletal muscle has the profound ability to hypertrophy in response to resistance training (RT). Yet, this has a high energy and protein cost and is presumably mainly restricted to recruited muscles. It remains largely unknown what happens with non-recruited muscles during RT. This study investigated the volume changes of 17 recruited and 13 non-recruited muscles during a 10-week single-joint RT program targeting upper arm and upper leg musculature. METHODS: Muscle volume changes were measured by manual or automatic 3D segmentation in 21 RT novices. Subjects ate ad libitum during the study and energy and protein intake were assessed by self-reported diaries. RESULTS: Post-training, all recruited muscles increased in volume (range: +2.2% to +17.7%, p < 0.05) while the non-recruited adductor magnus (mean: -1.5 ± 3.1%, p = 0.038) and soleus (-2.4 ± 2.3%, p = 0.0004) decreased in volume. Net muscle growth (r = 0.453, p = 0.045) and changes in adductor magnus volume (r = 0.450, p = 0.047) were positively associated with protein intake. Changes in total non-recruited muscle volume (r = 0.469, p = 0.037), adductor magnus (r = 0.640, p = 0.002), adductor longus (r = 0.465, p = 0.039) and soleus muscle volume (r = 0.481, p = 0.032) were positively related to energy intake (p < 0.05). When subjects were divided into a HIGH or LOW energy intake group, overall non-recruited muscle volume (-1.7 ± 2.0%), adductor longus (-5.6 ± 3.7%), adductor magnus (-2.8 ± 2.4%) and soleus volume (-3.7 ± 1.8%) decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in the LOW but not the HIGH group. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study documenting that some non-recruited muscles significantly atrophy during a period of resistance training. Our data therefore suggest muscle mass reallocation, i.e., that hypertrophy in recruited muscles takes place at the expense of atrophy in non-recruited muscles, especially when energy and protein availability are limited.
ABSTRACT
Wildlife conservation is often challenged by a lack of knowledge about the reproduction biology and adaptability of endangered species. Although monitoring steroids and related molecules can increase this knowledge, the applicability of current techniques (e.g. immunoassays) is hampered by species-specific steroid metabolism and the requisite to avoid invasive sampling. This study presents a validated steroidomics method for the (un)targeted screening of a wide range of sex and stress steroids and related molecules in urine using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). In total, 50 steroids (conjugated and non-conjugated androgens, estrogens, progestogens and glucocorticoids) and 6 prostaglandins could be uniquely detected. A total of 45 out of 56 compounds demonstrated a detection limit below 0.01 ng µL-1. Excellent linearity (R2 > 0.99), precision (CV < 20 %), and recovery (80-120 %) were observed for 46, 41, and 39 compounds, respectively. Untargeted screening of pooled giant panda and human samples yielded 9691 and 8366 features with CV < 30 %, from which 84.1 % and 83.0 %, respectively, also demonstrated excellent linearity (R2 > 0.90). The biological validity of the method was investigated on male and female giant panda urine (n = 20), as well as pooled human samples (n = 10). A total of 24 different steroids were detected with clear qualitative and quantitative differences between human and giant panda samples. Furthermore, expected differences were revealed between female giant panda samples from different reproductive phases. In contrast to traditional biomonitoring techniques, the developed steroidomics method was able to screen a wide range of compounds and provide information on the putative identities of metabolites potentially important for reproductive monitoring in giant pandas. These results illustrate the advancements steroidomics brings to the field of wildlife biomonitoring in the pursuit to better understand the biology of endangered species.
