Research Paper|Volume 15, Issue 2|pp 308—352

Body weight influences musculoskeletal adaptation to long-term voluntary wheel running during aging in female mice

Yukiko Kitase¹, Julian A. Vallejo^2,⁵, Sarah L. Dallas², Yixia Xie², Mark Dallas², LeAnn Tiede-Lewis², David Moore², Anthony Meljanac², Corrine Kumar¹, Carrie Zhao¹, Jennifer Rosser², Marco Brotto³, Mark L. Johnson², Ziyue Liu⁴, Michael J. Wacker⁵, Lynda Bonewald⁶

¹Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
²Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA
³Bone-Muscle Research Center, College of Nursing and Health Innovation, University of Texas, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
⁴Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
⁵Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA
⁶Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA

* Shared first authorship

Received: July 21, 2022Accepted: November 2, 2022Published: November 18, 2022

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204390

Copyright: © 2022 Kitase et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Frailty is the hallmark of aging that can be delayed with exercise. The present studies were initiated based on the hypothesis that long-term voluntary wheel running (VWR) in female mice from 12 to 18 or 22 months of age would have beneficial effects on the musculoskeletal system. Mice were separated into high (HBW) and low (LBW) body weight based on final body weights upon termination of experiments. Bone marrow fat was significantly higher in HBW than LBW under sedentary conditions, but not with VWR. HBW was more protective for soleus size and function than LBW under sedentary conditions, however VWR increased soleus size and function regardless of body weight. VWR plus HBW was more protective against muscle loss with aging. Similar effects of VWR plus HBW were observed with the extensor digitorum longus, EDL, however, LBW with VWR was beneficial in improving EDL fatigue resistance in 18 mo mice and was more beneficial with regards to muscle production of bone protective factors. VWR plus HBW maintained bone in aged animals. In summary, HBW had a more beneficial effect on muscle and bone with aging especially in combination with exercise. These effects were independent of bone marrow fat, suggesting that intrinsic musculoskeletal adaptions were responsible for these beneficial effects.