Robert Hach茅 (left), 91亚色's vice-president research & innovation, and Harvey Skinner (below right), dean of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health, will host the Research Celebration, Tuesday, Jan. 17, from 2 to 4 pm, in the Scott Library Atrium, Keele campus.

The celebration will highlight innovation in muscle health research at 91亚色 and will include talks from four Faculty of Health researchers discussing their work.

"This celebration provides an opportunity for the 91亚色 research community to share knowledge and ideas and to come together to learn more about the breadth and depth of innovative research taking place at the University,鈥� says Hach茅.

The four researchers will discuss the role muscles play in everything from obesity and diabetes to osteoarthritis and reversing the aging process.

鈥淜eeping people healthier longer, so that they can age positively and avoid chronic diseases and injuries, is at the heart of this celebration of ground breaking research underway in the Faculty of Health,鈥� says Skinner.

Professor Rolando Ceddia, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator, will discuss 鈥淚mproving Muscle and Adipose Tissue Function to Treat Obesity and Diabetes: The Role of Exercise and Diet鈥�.

鈥淢y research investigates the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which obesity induces dysfunctional metabolic alterations in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle; two tissues that play crucial roles in regulating energy and glucose homeostasis,鈥� says Ceddia, of 91亚色鈥檚 Muscle Health Research Centre in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

Left: Rolando Ceddia听

鈥淲e study the effects of exercise, either alone or in combination with nutritional and pharmacological interventions, on glucose and lipid metabolism in diet-induced obesity.鈥�

The presentation will look at the adaptive responses induced by chronic endurance training in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue metabolism, as well as the implications for whole-body energy expenditure. The main goal is to understand the role of exercise and diet in the prevention and/or treatment of obesity and its co-morbidities.

Professor Jennifer Kuk (right)听of 91亚色鈥檚 School of Kinesiology & Health Science will look at 鈥�Aerobic Versus Resistance Exercise for Decreasing Diabetes Risk in Obese Youth鈥�. The focus of this talk is to examine the effectiveness of aerobic and resistance exercise for improving insulin resistance in youth using a randomized control design.

Insulin resistance at the site of the muscle is one of the hallmark characteristics of pre-diabetes and Type听2 diabetes, says Kuk. Increasingly, youth are presenting with insulin resistance. It is increasingly important to develop non-pharmacological interventions for treating insulin resistance.听听

Aerobic and resistance exercise help improve insulin resistance in adults. Aerobic exercise improves muscle glucose metabolism and resistance exercise increases the muscle mass available for uptaking glucose.听听

Biology Professor David Hood (left), a Canada Research Chair in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, will discuss the topic, 鈥淐an Exercise 'Rescue' Aging Muscles?鈥� Skeletal muscle occupies about 40 per cent of body weight and is a major contributor to whole body health and metabolism.

鈥淎s we age, we lose muscle mass, and this is apparent in elderly, frail individuals. The mechanisms of how this muscle mass is lost are not completely understood, but a prominent theory involves the increasing malfunction of mitochondria within muscle cells,鈥� says Hood. 鈥淢itochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, the organelles which supply the energy for cell survival.鈥�

With age, mitochondrial content within muscle declines and they begin to produce molecules called 鈥渞eactive oxygen species鈥� which inflict damage on cellular DNA. If the DNA in any cell breaks down, the cell dies. In the case of muscle cells, they atrophy or shrink. If many cells atrophy, the body loses muscle mass.

鈥淩esearch has shown that exercise is a potential non-pharmacological therapy which can be used to reduce the loss of muscle mass by improving mitochondrial function, thereby preserving muscle function as we age,鈥� says Hood.

Professor William Gage (right), associate dean research & innovation, will examine 鈥淢uscles and Sore Joints: Arthritis and Muscle Activity鈥�. The knee and hip joints experience large loads when a person walks, says Gage. To deal with those loads, the joints and surrounding muscles act together to allow a person to move, while protecting the joints from the loading that occurs during movement.

As a person moves, their muscles are activated or turned on at the right time by the right amount so their joints will not only move, but their limbs won鈥檛 collapse under the weight, says Gage. Sensors in the joints contribute to the nervous system鈥檚 knowledge of when and how the muscles should be turned on.

Previous research has shown that when a joint is painful or swollen the sensory information coming from these joint sensors is affected, which in turn affects the activation of the muscles around the joints. A long-term outcome of this response may be osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, affecting more than 50 per cent of those over the age of 65.

鈥淩ecent research in our lab has examined how different strategies during walking may influence the amount of loading in the knee joint and how muscles around the joint respond to loads that are imposed on the knee joint,鈥� says Gage. 鈥淔uture work in our lab will explore how loading and muscle activity are affected by changes in the sensory information that arises from the knee joint.鈥�

To RSVP to Lia Novario, by Friday, Jan. 13, or call ext. 33782.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Faculty of Health to celebrate its innovative research appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Using an animal model, the study鈥檚 researchers found that the motor performance and muscle endurance of mice with ALS improved when they were given higher than normal doses of vitamin D.

鈥淲e are the only group in Canada that is looking at the connection between dietary interventions and the effects on the ALS model,鈥� says 91亚色 kinesiology Professor Mazen Hamadeh (left)听of the University鈥檚 Muscle Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Health. Hamadeh supervised the research led by 91亚色 master of science degree students Jesse Solomon and Alexandro Gianforcaro in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

The researchers conducted three different studies looking at different amounts of vitamin D. The first looked at the effects of 10 times the adequate intake of vitamin D on the ALS animal model 鈥� the equivalent of 8,000 IU/day in humans. Results showed an improvement in both motor performance and endurance, but no change to disease outcomes, such as onset, progression or lifespan.

鈥淲e followed up with another study because we thought we didn鈥檛 give high enough amounts of vitamin D,鈥� says Hamadeh. In the second study, the amount of vitamin D was increased to 50 times the suggested adequate intake amount or the equivalent of 40,000 IU per day in humans. Again, there was definite improvement in functional outcomes, but not in disease outcomes, confirming the findings of the first study, he says.

The researchers then thought that perhaps the recommended adequate intake amount of vitamin D was set too high and there was already an overabundance of vitamin D being administered. That led to a third study where only one fortieth of the recommended adequate intake amount was administered using the animal model, which induced a vitamin D deficiency. This study was published in PLoS ONE, an international online peer-reviewed journal, on Dec. 27.

This third study produced some interesting results, says Hamadeh. When vitamin D deficiency was induced before disease onset, disease severity was reduced, but after disease onset, it was worse. 鈥淪o at very low levels there is something happening in the cell that is causing them to function better only for a little bit of time, only until disease onset, than they progress regularly,鈥� he says.

The key now is to find out what molecular changes are occurring in the muscle, spinal cord and brain when vitamin D is administered, and that is what Hamadeh and his students are currently working on.

鈥淎LS is the most common motor neuron disease and up until now there is no cure for it. It is also a fast-progressing disease. Between diagnosis and death, there are usually two to five years. We are trying to see whether by modulating the diet, by changing the diet, we can influence not only when the disease starts, but how fast it progresses and whether it can affect lifespan,鈥� says Hamadeh.

鈥淭o find a dietary intervention that could influence a fast-paced disease after diagnosis of the disease, meaning after some irreversible damage has happened, means this particular nutrient has to be very powerful to either halt or slow the pace of the disease.鈥�

The model Hamadeh works with suffers from heightened oxidative stress, a state of increased levels of free radicals or oxidants that are produced naturally inside the cell during normal functioning and metabolism. There is an association between oxidative stress and chronic, metabolic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, including ALS, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, Alzheimer鈥檚, Parkinson鈥檚 and multiple sclerosis.

Hamadeh hopes his research and that of his students will help not only ALS, but many other similar diseases that share common mechanisms with ALS.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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