Know about the scientific facet of 'exercise', it makes your cells healthy promoting longer life

New Delhi, September 24: It’s been well-known that any kind of exercise benefits the body. Whether it’s cycling, walking or running, it makes us all healthy. You can lose weight, sleep better, fight stress and improve your overall body health. Zhen Yan of the University of Virginia School of Medicine said, “Whether muscle is healthy or not really determines whether the entire body is healthy or not. Aerobic exercise removes damaged mitochondria in skeletal muscle.” The researchers said that they found that one important benefit involves the cellular power plant – the mitochondria – which creates the fuel so the body can function properly.

 

Yan and colleagues have completed a study in mice that, for the first time, shows that just one bout of moderate-to-intense exercise acts as a "stress test" on mitochondria in muscles. They discovered that this "stress test" induced by aerobic exercise triggers a process called mitophagy, where the muscle disposes of the damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria, making the muscle healthier. Yan compares exercise-induced mitophagy to a state vehicle inspection that removes damaged cars from the streets.

Yan and his colleagues assessed the skeletal structure of the mouse model. And Yan explained that exercise in these mice also stimulated a kinase called AMPK, which in turn switched on another kinase, Ulk1. These chemical reactions appear to be important in control of the removal of dysfunctional mitochondria. “When it is turned on, Ulk1 activates other components in the cell to execute the removal of dysfunctional mitochondria.”

Yan's lab also deleted the Ulk1 gene in mouse skeletal muscle and found that, without the gene, the removal of damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria is dramatically inhibited, suggesting a new role for the Ulk1 gene in exercise and mitophagy. The findings to this study was published in the journal called Nature Communications.