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Strength, size and activation of knee extensors followed during 8 weeks of horizontal bed rest and the influence of a countermeasure

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Abstract

Changes in the quadriceps femoris muscle with respect to anatomical cross sectional area (CSA), neural activation level and muscle strength were determined in 18 healthy men subjected to 8 weeks of horizontal bed rest (BR) with (n = 9) and without (n = 9) resistive vibration exercise (RVE). CSA of the knee extensor muscle group was measured with magnetic resonance imaging every 2 weeks during bed rest. In the control subjects (Ctrl), quadriceps femoris CSA decreased linearly over the 8 weeks of bed rest to −14.1 ± 5.2% (P < 0.05). This reduction was significantly (P < 0.001) mitigated by the exercise paradigm (−3.5 ± 4.2%; P < 0.05). Prior to and seven times during bed rest, maximal unilateral voluntary torque (MVT) values of the right leg were measured together with neural activation levels by means of a superimposed stimulation technique. For Ctrl, MVT decreased also linearly over time to −16.8 ± 7.4% after 8 weeks of bed rest (P < 0.01), whereas the exercise paradigm fully maintained MVT during bed rest. In contrast to previous reports, the maximal voluntary activation remained unaltered for both groups throughout the study. For Ctrl, the absence of deterioration of the activation level might have been related to the repeated testing of muscle function during the bed rest. This notion was supported by the observation that for a subset of Ctrl subjects (n = 5) the MVT of the left leg, which was not tested during BR, was reduced by 20.5 ± 10.1%, (P < 0.01) which was for those five subjects significantly (P < 0.05) more than the 11.1 ± 9.2% (P < 0.01) reduction for the right, regularly tested leg.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to express our gratitude to the study participants. Their contribution was outstanding. Also, we wish thank the staff on “ward 18” and in the Department of Radiology of the Charité—Campus Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Arnold of the academic administration. The co-workers of the Centre for Muscle and Bone Research. Henning Soll and Bernd Johannes from the Institute Aerospace Medicine (DLR in Hamburg) were a delightful support in the recruitment process. Bernd Langkabel from Novotec Medical granted valuable technical support and Henriëtte van Olst from the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences (VU, Amsterdam) contributed in the analysis of the MRI data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Fundamental and Clinical Human Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    E. R. Mulder, D. F. Stegeman, K. H. L. Gerrits & A. de Haan

  2. 918 Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Institute of Neurology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 , HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    E. R. Mulder & D. F. Stegeman

  3. Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    D. F. Stegeman, K. H. L. Gerrits, M. I. Paalman & A. de Haan

  4. Center for Muscle and Bone research, Charité-Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany

    J. Rittweger & D. Felsenberg

  5. Institute for Biophysical and Clinical Research into Human Movement, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire, UK

    J. Rittweger & A. de Haan

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  1. E. R. Mulder
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  2. D. F. Stegeman
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  3. K. H. L. Gerrits
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  4. M. I. Paalman
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  5. J. Rittweger
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  6. D. Felsenberg
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  7. A. de Haan
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Correspondence to E. R. Mulder.

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Grants

The BBR study was supported by grant 14431/02/NL/SH2 from the European Space Agency. The study was further sponsored by Charité—University Medicine Berlin (Campus Benjamin Franklin), DLR (German AeroSpace), MSD Sharp & Dohme, Lilly Germany, Servier Germany, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Siemens, Novartis, and Seca.

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Mulder, E.R., Stegeman, D.F., Gerrits, K.H.L. et al. Strength, size and activation of knee extensors followed during 8 weeks of horizontal bed rest and the influence of a countermeasure. Eur J Appl Physiol 97, 706–715 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-006-0241-6

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