Regulation of human skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise training

碳水化合物和脂肪等燃料的能量分解涉及一系列复杂的代谢反应。精确调节这些不同的代谢途径对细胞和生物体的完整性至关重要。我的研究计划旨在研究骨骼肌能量代谢的调节，特别是在急性和慢性收缩时协调骨骼肌组织“重塑”的机制。骨骼肌是一种非常有趣的研究组织，因为它可以戏剧性地改变其代谢率。例如，在剧烈运动期间，能量需求的速度比休息时增加了一百多倍，这迫使肌肉迅速调整其能量供应的速度，以保持正常的功能。我研究人类骨骼肌的方法是通过要求人们在不同的时间段内以不同的工作量进行锻炼，从而产生不同的“代谢挑战”。我们可以通过改变底物利用率（例如，使用饮食操纵）或通过研究具有特殊特征的受试者（例如，训练有素的个体）来进一步研究代谢过程。我们通过使用针活检技术获得小样本组织来研究肌肉反应。然后对组织进行分析，以寻找参与调节细胞能量代谢的酶和其他蛋白质等化合物。我们特别感兴趣的事实是，短时间的高强度运动似乎能刺激代谢适应，而这种适应通常与长时间的耐力型训练有关。然而，调节适应这些不同刺激的分子信号是未知的。这项研究的主要目的是提供有关代谢调节的基本科学信息，但研究结果可能对那些对身体对运动的反应感兴趣的人有实际意义。

The breakdown of fuels such as carbohydrates and fats for energy involves a complex series of metabolic reactions. Precise regulation of these various metabolic pathways is vital to the integrity of the cell and organism. My research proposal is designed to investigate the regulation of energy metabolism in skeletal muscle and in particular the mechanisms that coordinate "remodeling" of this tissue in response to acute and chronic contraction. Skeletal muscle is a very interesting tissue to study since it can change its metabolic rate quite dramatically. For example, during strenuous exercise the rate of energy demand can increase by over a hundred-fold compared to rest, which forces the muscle to rapidly adjust its rate of energy supply in order to maintain proper function. The way in which I study skeletal muscle in humans is to produce distinct "metabolic challenges" by asking people to exercise at different workloads for varying periods of time. We can further investigate metabolic processes by altering substrate availability (e.g., using dietary manipulations) or by studying subjects with special characteristics (e.g., highly trained individuals). We investigate the muscle response by obtaining small samples of tissue using the needle biopsy technique. The tissue is then analyzed for compounds such as enzymes and other proteins that are involved in regulating cellular energy metabolism. We are particularly interested in the fact that short bursts of very intense exercise appear to stimulate metabolic adaptations that are typically associated with prolonged endurance-type training despite. However, the molecular signals that regulate adaptation to these diverse stimuli are unknown. The major goal of this research is to provide basic scientific information about metabolic regulation, but the results may have practical implications for people who are interested in the body's response to exercise.