Assessment of a novel strategy to attenuate muscle mass loss during 2 weeks of bed rest

Several situations, such as spaceflight, injury and illness, necessitate prolonged periods of muscle disuse or unloading in otherwise healthy humans. Under such conditions, there is a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, a reduction in insulin sensitivity, a decline in basal metabolic rate, and a concomitant increase in body fat mass. As a consequence, performance and metabolic health detriments ensue rapidly, providing an immediate need for effective countermeasures in order to minimize the subsequent rehabilitation efforts that are required.

It has previously been observed that applying blood flow restriction (BFR) during 2-weeks of immobilization of the lower extremity attenuated the decrease in muscle strength and effectively diminished the disuse atrophy of thigh muscles. These findings suggest that applying BFR may be an effective strategy to attenuate skeletal muscle mass loss during a period of bed rest.

We hypothesize that applying BFR will decrease the loss in leg muscle mass during 2 weeks of bed rest.

Pre and post 2-wk bed rest.

The main intervention: the amount of muscle mass that is lost following 2 weeks of bed rest will be assessed and whether BFR can be applied to effectively preserve muscle mass and strength during bed rest. In addition, we would like to assess the effects of 2 weeks of bed rest on changes in body composition and adipose tissue function and gain insights into the (potential) cellular mechanisms that occur during a period of bed rest.