The Versatility of the Pump-Perfused Rat Hindlimb Preparation: Examples Relating to Skeletal Muscle Function and Energy Metabolism

American Thyroid Association Guide to investigating thyroid hormone economy and action in rodent and cell models

BACKGROUND

An in-depth understanding of the fundamental principles that regulate thyroid hormone homeostasis is critical for the development of new diagnostic and treatment approaches for patients with thyroid disease.

SUMMARY

Important clinical practices in use today for the treatment of patients with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, or thyroid cancer are the result of laboratory discoveries made by scientists investigating the most basic aspects of thyroid structure and molecular biology. In this document, a panel of experts commissioned by the American Thyroid Association makes a series of recommendations related to the study of thyroid hormone economy and action. These recommendations are intended to promote standardization of study design, which should in turn increase the comparability and reproducibility of experimental findings.

CONCLUSIONS

It is expected that adherence to these recommendations by investigators in the field will facilitate progress towards a better understanding of the thyroid gland and thyroid hormone dependent processes.

Exercise training from late middle age until senescence does not attenuate the declines in skeletal muscle aerobic function

We previously showed that 7 wk of treadmill exercise training in late-middle-aged rats can reverse the modest reductions in skeletal muscle aerobic function and enzyme activity relative to values in young adult rats (Exp Physiol 93: 863-871, 2008). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether extending this training program into senescence would attenuate the accelerated decline in the muscle aerobic machinery normally seen at this advanced age. For this purpose, 29-mo-old Fisher 344 Brown-Norway rats underwent 5 or 7 mo of treadmill exercise training. Training resulted in greater exercise capacity during an incremental treadmill exercise test and reduced percent body fat in 34- and 36-mo-old rats and improved survival. Despite these benefits at the whole body level, in situ muscle aerobic capacity and muscle mass were not greater in the trained groups at 34 mo or 36 mo of age. Similarly, the trained groups did not have higher activities of citrate synthase (CS) or Complex IV in homogenates of either the plantaris (fast twitch) or the soleus (slow twitch) muscles at either age. Finally, protein expression of CS (a marker of mitochondrial content) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1 (relating to the drive on mitochondrial biogenesis) were not higher in the trained groups. Therefore, although treadmill training from late middle age into senescence had significant benefits on running capacity, survival, and body fat, it did not prevent the declines in muscle mass, muscle aerobic capacity, or mitochondrial enzyme activities normally seen across this age, revealing a markedly diminished plasticity of the aerobic machinery in response to endurance exercise at advanced age.

Exercise training in late middle-aged male Fischer 344 x Brown Norway F1-hybrid rats improves skeletal muscle aerobic function

The Fischer 344 x Brown Norway F1-hybrid (F344BN) rat has become an increasingly popular and useful strain for studying age-related declines in skeletal muscle function because this strain lives long enough to experience significant declines in muscle mass. Since exercise is often considered a mechanism to combat age-related declines in muscle function, determining the utility of this strain of rat for studying the effects of exercise on the ageing process is necessary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the plasticity of skeletal muscle aerobic function in late middle-aged male rats following 7 weeks of treadmill exercise training. Training consisted of 60 min per day, 5 days per week with velocity gradually increasing over the training period according to the capabilities of individual rats. The final 3 weeks involved 2 min high-intensity intervals to increase the training stimulus. We used in situ skeletal muscle aerobic metabolic responses and in vitro assessment of muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity to describe the adaptations of aerobic function from the training. Training increased running endurance from 11.3 +/- 0.6 to 15.5 +/- 0.8 min, an improvement of approximately 60%. Similarly, distal hindlimb muscles from trained rats exhibited a higher maximal oxygen consumption in situ (23.2 +/- 1.3 versus 19.7 +/- 0.8 mumol min(-1) for trained versus sedentary rats, respectively) and greater citrate synthase and complex IV enzyme activities in gastrocnemius (29 and 19%, respectively) and plantaris muscles (24 and 28%, respectively) compared with age-matched sedentary control animals. Our results demonstrate that skeletal muscles from late middle-aged rats adapt to treadmill exercise by improving skeletal muscle aerobic function and mitochondrial enzyme activities. This rat strain seems suitable for further investigations using exercise as an intervention to combat ageing-related declines of skeletal muscle aerobic function.