Effect of physical exercise on the ultrastructural features of skeletal muscle mitochondria in old mice

M. Costanzo; B. Cisterna; M. Malatesta

doi:10.4081/microscopie.2013.4988

Authors

M. Costanzo Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
B. Cisterna Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
M. Malatesta
manuela.malatesta@univr.it
Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.

Sarcopenia is an age-related decline of muscle mass, strength and quality which represents a potent risk factor for frailty, loss of independence and physical disability in elderly. The mechanisms leading to sarcopenia are still largely unknown and no specific therapy is presently available to counteract its onset or progress. Several studies have stressed the importance of physical exercise as an effective approach to prevent/limit the sarcopenic process. In the present work we have investigated at transmission electron microscopy the effects of treadmill running on the mitochondrial structure in aged skeletal muscle by comparing exercised versus sedentary old (28 months) mice, and using adult (12 months) individuals as control. Our observations demonstrated that ageing induces an accumulation of mitochondria characterised by larger size and longer cristae than in adulthood, and by a frequent association with lipid droplets. The mitochondrial alterations are partially reversed in old mice after treadmill running, thus providing further evidence that an adapted physical exercise may represent a suitable non-pharmacologic approach to limit the negative effects of ageing on the skeletal muscle, even when applied at late age.

Costanzo, M., Cisterna, B., & Malatesta, M. (2013). Effect of physical exercise on the ultrastructural features of skeletal muscle mitochondria in old mice. Microscopie, 20(2), 37–43. https://doi.org/10.4081/microscopie.2013.4988

Download Citation

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.

An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:

the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
a complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.