scholarly journals Mechanical overload and skeletal muscle fiber hyperplasia: a meta-analysis

1996 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 1584-1588 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Kelley

Kelley, George. Mechanical overload and skeletal muscle fiber hyperplasia: a meta-analysis. J. Appl. Physiol. 81(4): 1584–1588, 1996.—With use of the meta-analytic approach, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mechanical overload on skeletal muscle fiber number in animals. A total of 17 studies yielding 37 data points and 360 subjects met the initial inclusion criteria: 1) “basic” research studies published in journals, 2) animals (no humans) as subjects, 3) control group included, 4) some type of mechanical overload (stretch, exercise, or compensatory hypertrophy) used to induce changes in muscle fiber number, and 5) sufficient data to accurately calculate percent changes in muscle fiber number. Across all designs and categories, statistically significant increases were found for muscle fiber number [15.00 ± 19.60% (SD), 95% confidence interval = 8.65–21.53], muscle fiber area (31.60 ± 44.30%, 95% confidence interval = 16.83–46.37), and muscle mass (90.50 ± 86.50%, 95% confidence interval = 61.59–119.34). When partitioned according to the fiber-counting technique, larger increases in muscle fiber number were found by using the histological vs. nitric acid digestion method (histological = 20.70%, nitric acid digestion = 11.10%; P = 0.14). Increases in fiber number partitioned according to species were greatest among those groups that used an avian vs. mammalian model (avian = 20.95%, mammalian = 7.97%; P = 0.07). Stretch overload yielded larger increases in muscle fiber number than did exercise and compensatory hypertrophy (stretch = 20.95%, exercise = 11.59%, compensatory hypertrophy = 5.44%; P = 0.06). No significant differences between changes in fiber number were found when data were partitioned according to type of control (intra-animal = 15.20%, between animal = 13.90%; P = 0.82) or fiber arrangement of muscle (parallel = 15.80%, pennate = 11.60%; P = 0.61). The results of this study suggest that in several animal species certain forms of mechanical overload increase muscle fiber number.

1984 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-247
Author(s):  
B. F. Timson ◽  
G. A. Dudenhoeffer

The purpose of this study was to determine whether skeletal muscle fiber number could be accurately estimated by the determination of mean fiber dry weight (MFD) and total muscle dry weight. The muscles studied were the soleus, plantaris, gastrocnemius, extensor digitorum longus, tibialis anterior, and biceps brachii of the rat, the anterior latissimus dorsi of the chicken, and the flexor carpi radialis of the cat. Bundles of fibers were carefully separated from the muscle following nitric acid digestion (ND) and placed in groups of similar length. MFD determined from 400 to 800 fibers from each group was used to estimate the number of fibers in the remainder of the group. Estimated fiber number was compared with the fiber number determined in the muscle from the contralateral limb by the ND method. No difference in fiber number was observed between the ND method and the MFD estimation method for any of the muscles used in the study. The results indicate that the MFD estimation method is an accurate and relatively rapid method of fiber number determination in skeletal muscle.


1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Staron

This brief review attempts to summarize a number of studies on the delineation, development, and distribution of human skeletal muscle fiber types. A total of seven fiber types can be identified in human limb and trunk musculature based on the pH stability/ability of myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase (mATPase). For most human muscles, mATPase-based fiber types correlate with the myosin heavy chain (MHC) content. Thus, each histochemically identified fiber has a specific MHC profile. Although this categorization is useful, it must be realized that muscle fibers are highly adaptable and that innumerable fiber type transients exist. Also, some muscles contain specific MHC isoforms and/or combinations that do not permit routine mATPase-based fiber typing. Although the major populations of fast and slow are, for the most part, established shortly after birth, subtle alterations take place throughout life. These changes appear to relate to alterations in activity and/or hormonal levels, and perhaps later in life, total fiber number. Because large variations in fiber type distribution can be found within a muscle and between individuals, interpretation of data gathered from human muscle is often difficult. Key words: aging, myosin heavy chains, myogenesis, myofibrillar adenosine triphosphate


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Maris Lins Terena ◽  
Kristianne Porta Santos Fernandes ◽  
Sandra Kalil ◽  
Agnelo Neves Alves ◽  
Raquel Agnelli Mesquita Ferrari

2014 ◽  
Vol 221 (2) ◽  
pp. R13-R29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura D Brown

Establishing sufficient skeletal muscle mass is essential for lifelong metabolic health. The intrauterine environment is a major determinant of the muscle mass that is present during the life course of an individual, because muscle fiber number is set at the time of birth. Thus, a compromised intrauterine environment from maternal nutrient restriction or placental insufficiency that restricts muscle fiber number can have permanent effects on the amount of muscle an individual will live with. Reduced muscle mass due to fewer muscle fibers persists even after compensatory or ‘catch-up’ postnatal growth occurs. Furthermore, muscle hypertrophy can only partially compensate for this limitation in fiber number. Compelling associations link low birth weight and decreased muscle mass to future insulin resistance, which can drive the development of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, and the risk of cardiovascular events later in life. There are gaps in knowledge about the origins of reduced muscle growth at the cellular level and how these patterns are set during fetal development. By understanding the nutrient and endocrine regulation of fetal skeletal muscle growth and development, we can direct research efforts toward improving muscle growth early in life to prevent the development of chronic metabolic diseases later in life.


2004 ◽  
Vol 279 (25) ◽  
pp. 26192-26200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Parsons ◽  
Douglas P. Millay ◽  
Benjamin J. Wilkins ◽  
Orlando F. Bueno ◽  
Gretchen L. Tsika ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Joachim R. Sommer ◽  
Teresa High ◽  
Betty Scherer ◽  
Isaiah Taylor ◽  
Rashid Nassar

We have developed a model that allows the quick-freezing at known time intervals following electrical field stimulation of a single, intact frog skeletal muscle fiber isolated by sharp dissection. The preparation is used for studying high resolution morphology by freeze-substitution and freeze-fracture and for electron probe x-ray microanlysis of sudden calcium displacement from intracellular stores in freeze-dried cryosections, all in the same fiber. We now show the feasibility and instrumentation of new methodology for stimulating a single, intact skeletal muscle fiber at a point resulting in the propagation of an action potential, followed by quick-freezing with sub-millisecond temporal resolution after electrical stimulation, followed by multiple sampling of the frozen muscle fiber for freeze-substitution, freeze-fracture (not shown) and cryosectionmg. This model, at once serving as its own control and obviating consideration of variances between different fibers, frogs etc., is useful to investigate structural and topochemical alterations occurring in the wake of an action potential.


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