[Ageing: a matter of heart?]

Dose-Response Relationship between Endurance Training Prescription Variables and Increases in Aerobic Performance of Healthy and Unhealthy Middle and Very Old Individuals Aged 70 Years and Older: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to quantify the effectiveness of endurance training (ET) on aerobic performance (i.e., peak oxygen uptake (VO_2peak)) in healthy and unhealthy middle and very old adults aged 70 years and older, and to provide dose–response relationships of training prescription variables (in terms of frequency, and volume). Methods: Several scholarly databases (i.e., PubMed/MEDLINE, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect Journals, and Taylor & Francis Online—Journals) were searched, identifying randomized controlled studies that investigated the effectiveness of ET on VO_2peak in older adults. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated. Results: In terms of changes differences between experimental and control group, ET produced significant large effects on VO_2peak performance (SMD = 2.64 (95%CI 0.97–4.31)). The moderator analysis revealed that “health status” variable moderated ET effect onVO_2peak performance. More specifically, ET produced larger SMD magnitudes on VO_2peak performance in healthy compared with unhealthy individuals. With regard to the dose–response relationships, findings from the meta-regression showed that none of the included training prescription variables predicted ET effects on VO_2peak performance. Conclusions: ET is an effective mean for improving aerobic performance in healthy older adults when compared with their unhealthy counterparts.

[Cardiac pathologies and aging: lessons from a tiny heart]

The high level of conservation of the cardiogenic gene regulatory network as well as of the cellular and physiological characteristics of the cardiomyocytes between fly and human, makes the small heart of this invertebrate the simplest and most flexible genetic system to dissect the fundamental molecular mechanisms that are brought into play during the development, the establishment and the maintenance of the cardiac function. The recent improvements in techniques of measurements of cardiac function made it possible to validate Drosophila as a model of cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias of genetic and metabolic origin or dependent of ageing. The heart of the fly thus represents a model of choice to identify genes and their interactions implicated in cardiac pathologies.