ArticleThe journal of nutrition, health & aging2017
Effects of Running Wheel Activity and Dietary HMB and β-alanine Co-Supplementation on Muscle Quality in Aged Male Rats.
Article in The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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7 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanistic Integration of Beta-Alanine-Carnosine Buffering and Glutamine Metabolism in Exercise-Induced Muscle-Brain Crosstalk: Implications for Aging, Neurodegeneration, and Cognitive Decline.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Potential effects of β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate and exercise on brain aging and age-related disorders: implications for immunometabolic regulation and muscle-brain-immune crosstalk.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Enhancing effects of diphenyl diselenide and β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate combined with exercise on neuroprotection, memory, mitochondrial function, muscle function, and inflammation regulation in older adults and age-related diseases.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Does β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate Have Any Potential to Support the Treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in Humans and Animals?Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Dietary fish oil supplement induces age-specific contractile and proteomic responses in muscles of male rats.Lipids in health and disease · 2020Article
- Mitochondrial Content, but Not Function, Is Altered With a Multimodal Resistance Training Protocol and Adequate Protein Intake in Leucine-Supplemented Pre/Frail Women.Frontiers in nutrition · 2020Article
- Berberine Improves Cognitive Deficiency and Muscular Dysfunction via Activation of the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1a Pathway in Skeletal Muscle from Naturally Aging Rats.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveLoss of skeletal muscle function is linked to increased risk for loss of health and independence in older adults. Dietary interventions that can enhance aging muscle function, alone or in combination with exercise, may offer an effective way to reduce these risks. The goal of this study was to evaluate the muscular effects of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) and beta-alanine (β-Ala) co-supplementation in aged Sprague-Dawley rats with voluntary access to running wheels (RW).
methodsAged (20 months) rats were housed with ad libitum access to RW while on a purified diet for 4 weeks, then balanced for RW activity and assigned to either a control or an experimental diet (control + HMB and β-Ala) for the next 4 weeks (n = 10/group). At the end of the study, we assessed muscle size, in situ force and fatigability in the medial gastrocnemius muscles, as well as an array of protein markers related to various age- and activity-responsive signaling pathways.
resultsDietary HMB+β-Ala did not improve muscle force or fatigue resistance, but a trend for increased muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) was observed (P = 0.077). As a result, rats on the experimental diet exhibited reduced muscle quality (force/CSA; P = 0.032). Dietary HMB+β-Ala reduced both the abundance of PGC1-α (P = 0.050) and the ratio of the lipidated to non-lipidated forms of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta (P = 0.004), markers of mitochondrial biogenesis and autophagy, respectively. Some alterations in myostatin signaling also occurred in the dietary HMB+β-Ala group. There was an unexpected difference (P = 0.046) in RW activity, which increased throughout the study in the animals on the control diet, but not in animals on the experimental diet.
conclusionsThese data suggest that the short-term addition of dietary HMB+β-Ala to modest physical activity provided little enhancement of muscle function in this model of uncomplicated aging.
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