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Association of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity with muscle function, sarcopenia-related exercise performance, and intramuscular adipose tissue in older adults

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Abstract

Muscle function and exercise performance measures, such as muscle endurance capacity, maximal strength, chair stand score, gait speed, and Timed Up and Go score, are evaluated to diagnose sarcopenia and frailty in older individuals. Furthermore, intramuscular adipose tissue (IntraMAT) content increases with age. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity determines muscle metabolism and maintains muscle performance. This study aimed to investigate the association of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity with muscle function, exercise performance, and IntraMAT content in older individuals. Thirteen older men and women participated in this study. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was assessed by the recovery speed of muscle oxygen saturation after exercise using near-infrared spectroscopy from the medial gastrocnemius. We assessed two muscle functions, peak torque and time to task failure, and four sarcopenia-related exercise performances: handgrip strength, gait speed, 30-s chair stand, and Timed Up and Go. The IntraMAT content was measured using axial magnetic resonance imaging. The results showed a relationship between skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and gait speed but not with muscle functions and other exercise performance measures. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was not related to IntraMAT content. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity, which may be indicative of the capacity of muscle energy production in the mitochondria, is related to locomotive functions but not to other functional parameters or skeletal fat infiltration.

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Data will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all volunteers for their participation. The authors are also grateful to those who assisted with the MR data collection: Dr. Haruo Isoda and Mr. Akira Ishizuka (Brain & Mind Research Center, Nagoya University).

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number 20K19691, awarded to A.Y.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chukyo University, Toyota, Japan

    Akito Yoshiko

  2. Department of Exercise and Sports Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Kana Shiozawa & Keisho Katayama

  3. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Kana Shiozawa

  4. Department of Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Shiori Niwa

  5. Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Hideyuki Takahashi

  6. Research Center of Health, Physical Fitness and Sports, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Teruhiko Koike, Keisho Katayama & Hiroshi Akima

  7. Department of Sports Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Teruhiko Koike

  8. School of Health and Sport Sciences, Chukyo University, Toyota, Japan

    Kohei Watanabe

  9. Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Hiroshi Akima

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  1. Akito Yoshiko
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Contributions

Akito Yoshiko: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing—original draft preparation. Kana Shiozawa: data curation, writing, review and editing. Shiori Niwa: data curation, writing, reviewing, and editing. Hideyuki Takahashi: data curation, writing, reviewing, and editing. Teruhiko Koike: conceptualization, writing, reviewing, and editing. Kohei Watanabe: conceptualization, writing, review and editing. Keisho Katayama: conceptualization, methodology, writing, review and editing. Hiroshi Akima: conceptualization, methodology, writing, review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akito Yoshiko.

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Yoshiko, A., Shiozawa, K., Niwa, S. et al. Association of skeletal muscle oxidative capacity with muscle function, sarcopenia-related exercise performance, and intramuscular adipose tissue in older adults. GeroScience 46, 2715–2727 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-01043-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-023-01043-6

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