The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
Larger quadriceps muscle areas composed of type II fibers are linked to better gait and more physical activity in community-dwelling older adults, based on 236 decedents.
- Why it matters: Aging-related changes in muscle morphology are understudied, and it remains unclear how quadriceps histology relates to real-world mobility and activity in older adults.
- What they did: Quadriceps postmortem tissue from the Rush Memory and Aging Project was analyzed by immunohistochemistry for myosin heavy chain, with image-based quantification and compositional analyses; gait was measured by walking 8 feet and turning 360o twice, and activity by 10-day accelerometry.
- The result: In compositional models, male sex (estimate=0.303, SE=0.126, p=0.016) and more physical activity (estimate=0.118, SE=0.059, p=0.045) were associated with larger type II fiber areas, which related to better gait (estimate=-0.049, SE=0.021, p=0.021) and added 3.2% to gait variance beyond 5.8% explained by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias brain pathologies.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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