Relationship between plasma myostatin with muscular volume and muscular maximal strength and it’s response to acute resistance exercise in the elderly

Introduction: Concomitant with aging the amount of myostatin, as most important negative regulator of muscular mass, increases. Presumably, this issue has correlation with decrement of muscular mass and muscular strength. On the other hand, the response of this protein to resistance exercise in these people is not perfectly clear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigative the relationship between plasma myostatin with muscular volume and muscular maximal strength and it’s response to acute resistance exercise in elderly.Materials and Methods: 12 healthy old men participated in this study (60-75 years old age). 72 hours after the determination of muscular volume and muscular maximal strength, subjects participated in acute resistance exercise. Three blood samples were collected immediately before, and 4 hours after the exercise from antecubital vein. Plasma myostatin measured by ELISA methods.Results: There was a significant correlation between muscular mass and muscular strength with plasma myostatin in older men (P<0.05). Immediately and 4 hours after the resistance exercise the amount of myostatin significantly decreased (P<0.05). Furthermore, the amount of myostatin 4 hours after the exercise showed a non-significant decrease as compared to immediately after the exercise.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the increment of myostatin is along with decrement of muscular mass and strength in elderly. On the other hand, resistance exercise can decrease the plasma myostatin. This may decrease the prevalence of age-related muscular atrophy (sarcopenia) in the elderly.