Role of Skeletal Muscle Nitric Oxide Production in Age-related Fatigue and Fatigability

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2013-07-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

This is a pilot study funded by the National Institutes of Health. In this project, we will investigate the potential effect of skeletal muscle nitric oxide (NO) production on muscle strength and physical function in older individuals. We propose to test a new method that may enable simultaneous determination of both vascular and skeletal muscle NO production for the first time in humans. Further, we will determine whether augmentation of NO-mediated responses, by administration of sildenafil citrate (Viagra), reduces fatigue and fatigability in older individuals.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
• Treatments: Nitric Oxide; Sildenafil Citrate

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• 1. Age 20-35 yrs, and 60-80 yrs.

• 2. Ability to sign consent form (score >23 on the 30-item Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE)

• 3. Stable body weight for at least 3 months

Exclusion Criteria:

• 1. Physical dependence or frailty (impairment in any of the Activities of Daily Living (ADL), history of falls (>2/year) or significant weight loss in the past year)

• 2. Exercise training (>2 weekly sessions of moderate to high intensity aerobic or resistance exercise)

• 3. Pregnancy

• 4. Significant heart, liver, kidney, blood or respiratory disease

• 5. Peripheral vascular disease

• 6. Diabetes mellitus or other untreated endocrine disease

• 7. Active cancer

• 8. Use of nitrates

• 9. Recent (within 6 months) treatment with anabolic steroids, or corticosteroids.

• 10. Alcohol or drug abuse

• 11. Severe depression (>5 on the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, GDS)

• 12. Cardiac abnormalities such as a cardiac shunt or previously diagnosed pulmonary hypertension.

• 13. Systolic blood pressure <100 or >150, diastolic blood pressure <60 or >90.