Exercise in health, disease and rehabilitation

News

5 Augsut 2010
SES Leeds hosts international visitors

SES Leeds was delighted to welcome delegates from Japan, Canada and around the UK to symposium on Oxygen uptake kinetics: Systems integration and future directions. Delegates heard twelve oral communications and discussed a range of poster presentations on the mechanistic basis by which physiological systems control oxygen transport and use at rest and on transition to exercise. The studies presented ranged from how rapidly single muscle fibres adapt under laboratory conditions to the mechanisms limiting exercise capacity at altitude, in choric heart failure or in pulmonary hypertension. Support for this symposium was provided by The British Council (PMI2) for the development of research links between Japan and UK.

19 February 2010
BBSRC photo competition success
Dr Rob Wüst, a post-doctoral researcher at SES Leeds, has been awarded with the runner-up prize in the Agriculture, Food, Diet and Health category of the inaguural BBSRC photo competition. His composite image "Up in smoke" shows tiny blood vessels from skeletal muscle as viewed under a microscope, with smoke apparently weaving in between. Dr Wüst's research conducted during his PhD studies at Machester Metropolitan Univeristy investigated the effects of skeletal muscle. Smokers may tend to experience increased tiredness in their muscles compared to people who do not smoke, which could result from poor muscle oxygenation and/or utilisation. His current research focuses on the fundamental relationships between oxygen supply and oxygen utilisation in skeletal muscle tissue in healthy young and eldelry populations and in chronic heart faluire.

28 January 2010
Human exercise-induced circulating progenitor cell mobilisation in humans
Researchers from the Leeds Institute Genetics Health and Therapeutics and Sports and Exercise Sciences showed for the first time in humans that the mobilisation of circulating progenitor cells by exercise depends on the release of nitric oxide. The collaboration between 15 researchers in the groups of Professor Mark Kearney, Dr Karen Birch and Dr Harry Rossiter revealed that the cells, which have a protective role in maintenance and repair of the vascular system, depend on nitric oxide for their release during exercise. The research published this month in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, also showed that limitations in these processes may contribute to the poor vascular function in populations where vascular diseases are particularly prevalent.

6 October 2009
Why does the pacemaker of the heart degenerate with ageing?
Aerobic exercise capacity declines with age, but the mechanism for this decline is not fully understood. It is known that ageing is associated with declining performance of both the ability of the heart to deliver nutrients and oxygen to the peripheral muscles, and the ability of the muscles to extract what they receive. But what is responsible for the apparently inevitable decline in heart function (e.g. maximum heart rate) with age? Later this month Dr Jenny Wilkinson will be join the SES research group to work with Dr Matthew Lancaster and address this issue, in a project funded by the Wellcome Trust. This research aims to uncover why the heart’s pacemaker slowly fails with age, and therefore identify ways to better preserve it.

4 August 2009
Cardiovascular benefits of exercise training in post menopausal women - SES Research on BBC radio Leeds
Dr Mark Rakobowchuk was a recent guest on BBC radio Leeds discussing the cardiovascular benefits of exercise training in post menopausal women with Andrew Edwards and Georgey Spanswick on their morning talk show. The research highlighted the work of Dr Karen Birch and Dr Sally Barber (supported by Heart Research UK) who also applied their research to post menopausal women with Type 2 Diabetes, a cohort with significant risk for developing heart disease and cardiovascular complications. Another highlight of the discussion was the most recent research supported by the British Heart Foundation focusing on the effects of training on a vascular stem cell, the endothelial progenitor cell in these particular women. This cell is important due to its role in regeneration of damaged blood vessels. This study is currently in the recruitment phase and is seeking both women who wish to begin exercise training and those who simply would like to have their cardiovascular risk assessed and do not wish to begin exercise training. For more information please contact Dr Mark Rakobowchuk (0113 343 1669, m.e.rakobowchuk@leeds.ac.uk) and see our Research page.

3 July 2009
SES Welcomes Dr Andrew Wilson
We are delighted to welcome Dr Andrew Wilson to the SES research group. Andrew joins us from Warwick University where he completed his post-doc studying the organisation of action selection and execution. Andrew’s research focuses on the coupling of perception and action, with a specific interest in how people acquire new skills. He is interested in the integrity of these learning processes in adults after strokes and in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). His recent article published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology was a detailed kinematic analysis of how children with and without DCD coordinated body segments in looking and pointing tasks. Andrew will be working closely with the Motor Control group in Faculty of Biological Sciences and the Perception, Action, Cognition group in Faculty of Medicine and Health. Welcome Andrew!

5 June 2009
Leeds researchers at The American College of Sports Medicine Annual Conference (ACSM), Seattle WA, USA
Dr Harry Rossiter was an invited speaker at an international symposium on 'Integrated Systems Determinants of Exercise Intolerance' at the ACSM annual conference in Seattle this month. The symposium chaired by Professor Fred Kolkhorst (San Diego State University) included presentations from Professor Jens Bangsbo (University of Copenhagen) and Professor Jerome Dempsey (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and explored the mechanisms determining exercise limitation in humans. The session focussed specifically on how the various physiological systems involved in exercise are integrated to prolong or attenuate the tolerable duration of exercise. Leeds was well represented at the meeting with a range of posters and oral presentations on subjects ranging from control of ventilation to endothelial function from Dr Karen Birch, Dr Harry Rossiter, Dan Cannon and Scott Murgatroyd. The conference was attended by >5,000 delegates.

5 May 2009
Why does ageing encourage the cardiac pacemaker to fail?
A new grant award from the Wellcome Trust to Dr Matthew Lancaster is aimed at investigating the mechanisms responsible for the age-dependent decline in cardiac pacemaker function. Dr Lancaster will use electrophysiology and gene expression in the heart muscle to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the reduction in maximum heart rate with age (a major limitation to maximal exercise performance), as well as the age-dependent increase in susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmias.

3 April 2009
Leeds PhD students win Blue Riband
Two Leeds PhD students from Sport and Exercise Sciences won awards at The Physiological Society 'Human and Exercise' themed meeting today. Scott Bowen won first place for his poster presentation on "The kinetics of pulmonary oxygen uptake during the transition to moderate intensity exercise from a raised metabolic rate in humans". Dan Cannon was awarded third place for his poster on "Muscle O2 delivery-to-consumption matching at the limit of tolerance during ramp incremental exercise in men exhibiting a plateau in O2 uptake". Congratulations to both!