ABSTRACT
Aging is usually accompanied by a significant reduction in muscle mass and force. To determine the relative contribution of inactivity and aging per se to this decay, we compared muscle function and structure in (a) male participants belonging to a group of well-trained seniors (average of 70 years) who exercised regularly in their previous 30 years and (b) age-matched healthy sedentary seniors with (c) active young men (average of 27 years). The results collected show that relative to their sedentary cohorts, muscle from senior sportsmen have: (a) greater maximal isometric force and function, (b) better preserved fiber morphology and ultrastructure of intracellular organelles involved in Ca(2+) handling and ATP production, (c) preserved muscle fibers size resulting from fiber rescue by reinnervation, and (d) lowered expression of genes related to autophagy and reactive oxygen species detoxification. All together, our results indicate that: (a) skeletal muscle of senior sportsmen is actually more similar to that of adults than to that of age-matched sedentaries and (b) signaling pathways controlling muscle mass and metabolism are differently modulated in senior sportsmen to guarantee maintenance of skeletal muscle structure, function, bioenergetic characteristics, and phenotype. Thus, regular physical activity is a good strategy to attenuate age-related general decay of muscle structure and function (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01679977).
Subject(s)
Aging/physiology , Exercise/physiology , Muscle Fibers, Skeletal/ultrastructure , Muscle, Skeletal/physiology , Adult , Aged , Biopsy, Needle , Calcium/metabolism , Exercise Test , Humans , Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/genetics , Isometric Contraction/physiology , Male , Membrane Proteins/metabolism , MicroRNAs/genetics , Microscopy, Electron, Transmission , Mitochondria, Muscle/metabolism , Muscle Fibers, Skeletal/metabolism , Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism , Muscular Atrophy/pathology , NF-E2-Related Factor 2/metabolism , Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Coactivator 1-alpha , Protein Isoforms/genetics , Proto-Oncogene Proteins/metabolism , RNA, Messenger/metabolism , RNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism , Sedentary Behavior , Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein 1/metabolism , Transcription Factors/metabolism , Up-Regulation/physiology , YY1 Transcription Factor/metabolism , Young AdultABSTRACT
Three commercial tests that measure progesterone content in milk were evaluated for accuracy of estrus detection. The tests were evaluated on 96 milk samples collected from Holstein cows at a commercial dairy farm in central Florida. The test results were compared with the results of radioimmunoassay on the same sample. Comparisons were made by calculating the sensitivities, specificities, and predictive values. The significance of the statistical association between the tests and the radioimmunoassay was evaluated by use of the McNemar chi 2 test. Decision-tree analysis was used to determine the most useful testing strategy, considering both cost and accuracy. The cowside progesterone assay on estrus-mount detector-positive cows was more profitable than use of estrus-mount patches alone. The return on investment was higher with the cowside test, making it preferred as a field test for detecting estrus.
