What is new in neuro-musculoskeletal interactions: mechanotransduction, microdamage and repair?
Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Muscles and bones The studious JMNI reader may wish to add some recent pieces of evidence to his/her portfolio regarding the ‘musclebone’ hypothesis (MBH). Starting with the potential relevance of the MBH for the ageing process, Hamrick et al. have published a study on the age related musculoskeletal decline in a new murine model 1 . Well, what actually is new is not the model (CL57BL/6 or ‘Black6’ mice, popular for their robustness for a long time), but rather that finally somebody looked at that model’s muscles, bones and endocrine system in conjunction. In that sense, the reported findings are noteworthy, namely that muscle mass and bone mass tend to decline simultaneously, and that this decline is preceded by increasing levels of cytokines (IL-6), and decreasing levels of physical activity. When taking applied advantage of the MBH, ‘dancing for bone health’ looks like an attractive alternative to what is perceived by many as stupid sweat-driving workouts in the gym. A recent study has quantified the small to moderate skeletal benefits of dancing in female non-elite dancers of different categories 2 . Because of their clever study design, the authors were able to demonstrate that these benefits (about 1% of BMC at the spine and lower body) became most prominent during and after the growth spurt, i.e. shortly before menarche. Larger effects, about 4%, were seen for the femoral neck, but these were independent of biological age.
Source: PubMed
Author: J Rittweger
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2279555163