This week and
last week in class we have been discussing energy expenditure, obesity and
diabetes in class. While preparing for this week’s blog assignment, I cam
across and interesting post on scienceblog.com titled, “Preventing Muscles Lose, Obesity, and Diabetes.”
The post goes on to describe a research project that is taking place at Nanyang
Technological University (NTU). They are
researching a protein, that if suppressed, it can halt muscle loss in
chronically ill patients, as well as fight obesity, and combat diabetes.
The protein is
called myostatin and it is responsible for the break down of the mitochondria,
which is the cell wall. The Article explains that under normal circumstances
this is a normal procedure. However the article states “when a patient is
suffering from chronic diseases or is bedridden (and muscles are not used
often), this process is disrupted due to high levels of myostatin which results
in increased mitochondrial loss and muscle atrophy.”
I found this to be interesting because it once again shows
harmful results of a sedentary lifestyle. Granted these people are not
sedentary by choice, however it would be interesting to look at people who live
highly sedentary life styles and see if this same event is occurring.
Still this study isn’t just related to muscle loss. It also
states that inhibiting the protein can help increase fat utilization, which
could both help decrease obesity, and can curb the number of people who
contract Type II diabetes.
Other interesting results of the study showed, “People who exercise regularly have been
found to have lower levels of myostatin as compared to those who do not.
Studies have also found that older people have more myostatin and this can
explain why when one ages, muscles become weaker.”
It shall be very interesting to see how the further research
progresses. It would be interesting to see if this could possibly help people
who live much more sedentary lives, whether they are a 9-5 guy who works in a
cubicle for eight hours each day, or for those who are bed-ridden and unable to
maintain any for of exercise.
Just a quick heads up: I'm pretty sure mitochondria are found within cells, not in the cell wall. I took a quick look at the post you quoted and it too doesn't say anything about cell walls.
ReplyDeleteIt also looks to me like the post might be a sham one -- that is, it's really a press release. All this means is that the news bureau of the university where the research was done probably wrote it, rather than some independent blogger who found the study interesting and decided to write about it.