Understanding the effects of obesity on autophagic and mTORC1 signalling following resistance exercise and protein ingestion in skeletal muscle

Summary

It is well known that people living with obesity often have poor skeletal muscle quality which is characterised by increased amounts of fat within muscle itself. As skeletal muscle is a major contributor to basal metabolic rate and glucose control, increasing the quality of skeletal muscle in those living with obesity could improve the long-term success of subsequent weight loss programs.

There are two main activities which are often recommended to improve skeletal muscle quality, resistance exercise (i.e. weightlifting) and adequate protein intake, however, recent research has suggested that the skeletal muscle of obese individuals does not respond as much to these activities as a non-obese person.

This research project aims to investigate if certain processes within muscle cells are reduced in people living with obesity, compared to those who are not, in response to a single session of resistance exercise and a protein-rich drink. This will hopefully identify processes we can target specifically to improve skeletal muscle quality. This will involve participants attending our lab and completing a session of single-leg resistance exercise and ingesting a protein drink. Before and after this we will take a number of blood samples and small pieces of muscle from each thigh to understand how your muscle reacts and whether this differs between individuals with and without obesity. Following the visit we will the conduct a variety of laboratory analysis on these samples to understand the responses.

The NIHR BioResource is contributing to this work through the coordination of participant recall/recruitment of individuals living with obesity to ensure efficient completion of the project. Overall, this project has the potential to help us design future programmes which can improve skeletal muscle quality on those living with obesity, improving general health and increasing success of weight loss interventions.