Authors: Merja Hoffrén Masaki Ishikawa Janne Avela Paavo V Komi
Publish Date: 2012/03/31
Volume: 112, Issue: 12, Pages: 4035-4043
Abstract
Increasing age can influence the interaction of muscle fascicles and tendon during dynamic movements The object of the present study was to examine occurrence and possible reasons for the agespecific behavior of fascicles and tendons and their interaction during hopping with different intensities Nine young and 24 elderly subjects performed repetitive hopping with maximal effort as well as with 50 65 75 and 90 intensities During hopping joint kinematics and ground reaction forces were measured together with recordings of ultrasound images of both the fascicle and the muscle–tendon junction part of the gastrocnemius medialis GaM muscle The results showed that fascicle behavior during the braking phase of hopping was clearly age specific in nature with more fascicle shortening in the young p 0001 In addition the fascicle shortening increased in young subjects with increasing intensity p 005 At the instant of ground contact the elderly subjects demonstrated decreased fascicle length with increasing hopping intensity p 001 Thereafter in the braking phase the elderly showed much smaller changes in fascicle length as compared to the young In contrast to the fascicles the GaM outer tendon did not show major agespecific differences in stretching and shortening amplitudes during hopping although the peak tendon forces were clearly lower in the elderly p 0001 These results suggest that GaM outer tendon behavior is not influenced greatly with increasing age It is further suggested that when aging modifies the fascicle–tendon interaction it is primarily due to the agespecific difference in the fascicle level This notion poses a question that as compared to the young the elderly individuals may have a different fascicle behavior for optimal SSC locomotion such as hoppingThe authors acknowledge the valuable contribution of Ms P Puttonen and Mr Masanobu Akiyama for help with the data analysis This study was supported by Grant 123757 from the Academy of Finland by Grant KAKENHI 20800061 and by the Science Research Promotion Fund 2009 in Japan
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