Muscles in Biological News

1-finger exercise reveals unexpected limits to dexterity

... nearly seventy years about how the properties of muscles influence their everyday function, and how ... "force-velocity" properties that weaken muscles as they move faster. "That is why your bicycle ... of possible commands sent by the brain to the muscles is severely limited by the mechanical nature of ...

Stem cell surprise for tissue regeneration

... needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury. The finding challenges the current ... make new muscles. For this, they injured the leg muscles between the knee and ankle. They were again ... embryonic muscle stem cell genes, could generate muscles as well as normal muscle stem cells. They even ...

UCSF discovers new glucose-regulating protein linked with diabetes

... School have linked a specialized protein in human muscles to the process that clears glucose out of the ... of mechanisms of type 2 diabetes." In humans, muscles play a key role in clearing glucose from the ... said, GLUT4 is stored inside both human and mouse muscles in a special compartment that releases it upon ...

Grouping muscles to make controlling limbs easier

... With more than 30 muscles in your arm, controlling movement -- whether it's ... to control a limb by stimulating groups of muscles rather than individual muscles -- a finding that could make it easier to restore ...

As good as it gets: Octogenarian muscles don't get stronger with exercise

... and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Fast-twitch muscles are high powered and explosive and are associated ... exercise such as marathons. Fast-twitch muscles are important in posture and balance and so may ... more prone to falls. When people do not use their muscles during a period of convalescence or with a ...

Here's venom in your eye: Spitting cobras hit their mark

... venom to stream out of the snake's fangs. The muscles can produce enough pressure to spray venom up to ... They found that cobras engage their head and neck muscles a split second before spitting. The muscle ... the venom forward while the [head and neck] muscles produce rapid oscillations of the head that ...

Motor nerve targeting to limb muscles is controlled by ephrin proteins

... nerve targeting from the spinal cord to the muscles of the limb. This discovery, co-authored by ... cord to the limb to connect to either flexor muscles (i.e. biceps arm muscle) or extensor muscles (i.e. triceps arm muscle)." Previously, the ...

Study may explain exercise-induced fatigue in muscular dystrophies

... membrane, then blood vessels that supply active muscles do not relax normally and the animals experience ... exercise. "The mice without nNOS have normal muscles and can exercise quite well, but after just mild ... that reduced blood flow to the recovering muscles produces the fatigue." To determine if nNOS ...

Researchers discover that growing up too fast may mean dying young in honey bees

... average fly 8 km (5 miles), contract their wing muscles approximately 4,000,000 times, and reduce ... and total antioxidant capacity in their flight muscles over the course of a day. However, these changes ... muted in forager head tissues and hive bee flight muscles and head tissues. The diurnal ...

Researchers study acoustic communication in deep-sea fish

... has found that cusk-eels use several sets of muscles to produce sound that plays a prominent role in ... Universit de Lige in Belgium, examined the sonic muscles of the fawn cusk-eel, Lepophidium profundorum, a ... chief sound producers. They have unusual sonic muscles that occur in antagonistic pairs and are ...

A stronger future for the elderly

... age groups to help in it's research. Skeletal muscles make up about half of our body weight and are ... posture. However, at around 50 years of age our muscles begin to waste at approximately 0.5 per cent to ... of falls and fractures. In order for skeletal muscles to maintain their size, the large reservoirs of ...

Toad research could leapfrog to new muscle model

... fast feeding action offers a new look at how muscles work. This fresh perspective could lead to ... like Parkinson's. Science has long held that muscles behave largely like motors. Northern Arizona ... a spring. "Existing theories don't explain how muscles shorten rapidly," Nishikawa said. "Muscles can ...

Ancient protein offers clues to killer condition

... This folded structure allows the smooth muscles to adjust to being different lengths so they can ... expanding and contracting. In contrast, skeletal muscles operate over a narrow range, defined by how much ... changes in the composition of myosin within the muscles can be fatal. For example, a swelling in the ...

How alligators rock and roll

... using their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal and rib muscles to shift their lungs like internal floatation ... discovery in American alligators suggests special muscles that manipulate the position of the lungs and ... and manatees, she adds, noting that the use of muscles to move the lungs may be incredibly important or ...

Stem-cell transplantation improves muscles in MD animal model, UT Southwestern researchers report

... have been shown to restore function to defective muscles in a model of muscular dystrophy. The ... showed no signs of tumors. Tests of isolated muscles showed that the treated muscles were significantly stronger than untreated mice ...

Thinking makes it so: Science extends reach of prosthetic arms

... when you lose your arm, you lose the motors, the muscles and the structural elements of the bones, Kuiken ... and hand movements, and connect them to the chest muscles so that the signals can be used to move the ... one movement at a time; and must contract two muscles at once to achieve a new movement. Its not ...

Simulation reveals how body repairs balance after damage

... are impaired through injury, age or illness, muscles are deprived of the detailed sensory information ... nervous system reinvents its communication with muscles after sensory loss. The findings could someday be ... Sclerosis or Parkinsons) by retraining their muscles and improving overall balance. The research will ...

Was ability to run early man's Achilles heel?

... we use what we know about skeletons and the muscles to build a computer model of the fossil species ... model is a virtual robot where we can activate muscles and get it to move its legs in a physically ... it is possible for the simulation to learn which muscles to fire and when in order to get the model to ...

Sticky protein helps reinforce fragile muscle membranes

... lacks this component restored muscle membrane integrity and protected the muscles from damage. "Injecting the protein helped us prove that glycosylated ... this tool also suggests that delivering functional dystroglycan to muscles may be a possible therapeutic approach for treating these muscular ...

Triggering muscle development -- a therapeutic cure for muscle wastage?

... Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday 1st July 2009. When muscles are stretched during exercise, they produce a specific substance known as ... the size and strength of the muscle. In addition to intensive exercise, muscles need to be stimulated by growth hormone (GH) in order to release MGF. ...

Natural-born divers and the molecular traces of evolution

... how myoglobin, the molecule responsible for delivering oxygen to the muscles during locomotion, has been modified in seals and whales to help them cope ... This is important as divers may contain 10 times more myoglobin in their muscles than terrestrial animals. The team has also found a conspicuous increase ...

New study finds lowfat chocolate milk is effective post-exercise recovery aid for soccer players

... that lowfat chocolate milk is effective in the recovery and repair of muscles after intense training for these competitive soccer players. This new ... routine should replace fluids and nutrients lost in sweat, and help muscles recover. Increasingly, fitness experts consider chocolate milk an ...

The secret to chimp strength

... biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story. In an article to be published in the ... Our surplus motor neurons allow us to engage smaller portions of our muscles at any given time. We can engage just a few muscle fibers for delicate ...

Symposium to look at genetic basis of exercise

... The heart can pump more blood, delivering more oxygen to the muscles. The muscles get stronger, and so on. There are individual differences in the ... performance. For example, it will lead to greater knowledge of how the muscles work, and to understanding muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy. ...

Crafty Australian crayfish cheat

... Rob James from Coventry University, UK, measured how much force crayfish muscles produce. He found that the muscles of female crayfish are actually more powerful than those of males. 'So ...

Vitamin E shows possible promise in easing chronic inflammation

... body mass consisting of skeletal muscle, chronic inflammation of those muscles which include those found in the limbs can result in significant ... increases in IL-6. But the effects of acute increases in IL-6 in skeletal muscles which occur during exercise may be another story. "Whether there's a ...

First trial in patients with a potential treatment of the incurable ALS muscle disease

... can be made available as a medicine. An incurable disease of the muscles Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) can strike anyone. The Chinese ... of suffocation. In ALS, the patient's nerve bundles that extend to the muscles deteriorate. As a result the patient loses control of the muscles, and ...

Scientist clears hurdles for muscular dystrophy therapy

... the muscle deterioration, but hurdles such as the need to treat all muscles in the body, including both skeletal muscle and heart muscle, have ... uses a particular virus to deliver the gene therapy, reaches all of the muscles in large animals. This development raises the hope of whole body ...

During exercise, the human brain shifts into high gear on 'alternative energy'

... showed that the brain was not storing the lactate which had come from the muscles during exercise, but rather using it as fuel. In fact, the brain helped to clear lactate from the circulation, thereby leaving glucose to the muscles that need it for the hard work they were performing. ...

Robotics research: Enhancing the lives of people with disabilities

... these types of ailments, such as muscular dystrophy, have extremely weak muscles that waste away over time. These individuals experience difficulties in ... Learning Laboratory are currently studying individuals with healthy muscles to develop a baseline, and then plan to test their robotic system on ...

When fish talk, scientists listen

... to produce words, toadfish and midshipman orchestrate the movement of muscles attached to their swim bladder to produce grunts and hums. Using ... the group traced the development of the connection from the animal's vocal muscles to a cluster of neurons located in a compartment between the back of its ...

'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble

... deep in the brain resulted from nerve signals, which are transmitted from muscles in the limbs back to the brain. The scientific term for this response is ... now succeeded in demonstrating that it is not only nerve signals from the muscles as feedback that drive the diseased 5-Hz rhythm in the brain. Headed by ...

Wasps and bumble bees heat up, fly faster with protein-rich food

... meat, a separate experiment has shown. In both cases warmer flight muscles likely speed the insects' trips home, allowing them to quickly exploit a ... cut it into a nice little aerodynamic ball, they're vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat." When offered a plate of pulverized chicken, the ...

Trans-fatty acids and insulin sensitivity

... acids are still relatively unhealthy, these findings do show that muscles can utilize them, whether natural or industrial, much like regular fats; thus, trans-fat metabolites won't accumulate in muscles and increase the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. ...

Post-exercise caffeine helps muscles refuel

... who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66% more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing intense, glycogen-depleting exercise, compared ... used a high dose of caffeine to establish that it could help the muscles convert ingested carbohydrates to glycogen more rapidly. However, because ...

RING finger protein 5 may guide treatment for muscle disease in older adults

... sIBM is a muscle disease that affects predominantly older men, causing muscles to gradually weaken and waste away. The number of people living with sIBM ... the importance of RNF5 in muscle repair. Pathologic changes within muscles of the transgenic models with RNF5 overexpression were similar to those ...

Motor neuron disease and toxic substances: Possible link?

... rare, devastating illness in which nerve cells that carry brain signals to muscles gradually deteriorate. One form of it, Lou Gehrigs disease or ALS ... unknown. Figuring out why these people develop the disease, which causes muscles to weaken, atrophy and cease to function, is an important step in ...

Severe asthma may be a different form of the disease

... and severity of asthma attacks, and bronchodilators, which relax the muscles in the airways and allow them to open, can relieve asthma for most people. ... treatment. Hyperresponsiveness. Irritants such as smoke can cause muscles in the airways to contract and close. Those who have asthma are much more ...

Marsupial lion tops African lion in fight to death

... Wroe has revealed that the creatures skull, jaw, and head and neck muscles were well adapted to using the unique technique for killing large prey, ... an extremely efficient bite, Wroe says. In addition to very powerful jaw muscles for its size, its muscle and skull architecture were arranged in such a ...

Surprise -- cholesterol may actually pose benefits, study shows

... role in the inflammation process, he noted. As you exercise, your muscles can become sore because they are rebuilding muscle mass. More cholesterol ... in some areas, such as near the heart, is not good, but for building muscles it may be beneficial, and cholesterol appears to aid in this process. ...