Countering disuse atrophy in older adults with low-volume leucine supplementation.

Older adults are at increased risk of being bedridden and experiencing negative health outcomes including the loss of muscle tissue and functional capacity. We hypothesized that supplementing daily meals with a small quantity (3-4 g/meal) of leucine would partially preserve lean leg mass and function of older adults during bed rest. During a 7-day bed rest protocol, followed by 5 days of inpatient rehabilitation, healthy older men and women (67.

Improving Dietary Protein Quality Reduces the Negative Effects of Physical Inactivity on Body Composition and Muscle Function.

Background: Brief periods of physical inactivity can compromise muscle health. Increasing dietary protein intake is potentially beneficial but complicated by difficulties reconciling anabolic potential with a realistic food volume and energy intake. We sought to determine whether increasing dietary protein quality could reduce the negative effects of physical inactivity.

Production and transplantation of bioengineered lung into a large-animal model.

The inability to produce perfusable microvasculature networks capable of supporting tissue survival and of withstanding physiological pressures without leakage is a fundamental problem facing the field of tissue engineering. Microvasculature is critically important for production of bioengineered lung (BEL), which requires systemic circulation to support tissue survival and coordination of circulatory and respiratory systems to ensure proper gas exchange. To advance our understanding of vascularization after bioengineered organ transplantation, we produced and transplanted BEL without creation of a pulmonary artery anastomosis in a porcine model.

2,000 Steps/Day Does Not Fully Protect Skeletal Muscle Health in Older Adults During Bed Rest.

Physical activity in an inpatient setting is often limited to brief periods of walking. For healthy adults, public health agencies recommend a minimum of 150 min/week of moderate-intensity exercise. The authors sought to determine if meeting this activity threshold, in the absence of incidental activities of daily living, could protect skeletal muscle health during bed rest.