Effects of short-term GH supplementation and treadmill exercise training on physical performance and skeletal muscle apoptosis in old rats

摘要

The consequence of physical inactivity as observed by loss of muscle mass and strength at old age has been highlighted by several reports showing that exercise training counteracts the age-related muscle loss and functional decline even in frail older adults (3, 21, 27, 39). Furthermore, exercise training has recently been shown to attenuate skeletal muscle apoptosis in old rats (43). Notably, an age-related alteration of the apoptotic process has been identified as a potential mechanism in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia in both animals (15, 16, 37, 38,42) and humans (33, 47, 58).