Molecular Mechanisms of Muscle Redox Signaling in Exercise and Injury

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Exercise remains the most powerful intervention to increase health span in humans and is widely advocated to slow down or even prevent the functional decline occurring in old age. Exercise builds muscle mass, which prevents frailty, increases mobility, as a consequence, quality of life. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms by which exercise builds muscle mass are not well understood. Oxidative stress has long been seen as a negative consequence of exercise, but more recent results suggest that reducing oxidative stress can prevents the beneficial effects of exercise, underscoring its importance in signaling during training.Using transgenic mice expressing a ratiometric redox-sensitive fluorescent protein (roGFP) in mitochondrial or cytosol, we will record the spatio-temporal dynamics of cellular redox state in skeletal muscle of live animals using in vivo imaging. We already found that muscle fiber injury plays an important role in redox signaling during exercise and accompanying muscle fiber injury, but did not yet identify the pathway(s) transmitting this signal. We will work towards identifying the danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released by injured muscle fibers and the receptors causing the observed redox transients in adjacent tissue. Suitable in vitro models will also be employed, with the overall goal of gaining insights that might help design interventions that increase the positive effects of exercise.One publication and one book chapter was published during parental leave.