Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2-2018

Publication Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

13

Issue Number

5

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0196832

Disciplines

Biology | Physiology

Abstract

Populations with obesity are more likely to fall and exhibit balance instability. The reason for this is likely multifactorial, but there is some evidence that sensory function is impaired during obesity. We tested the hypothesis that muscle proprioceptor function is compromised in a mouse model of diet induced obesity. An in vitro muscle-nerve preparation was used to record muscle spindle afferent responses to physiological stretch and sinusoidal vibration. We compared the responses of C57/Bl6 male and female mice on a control diet (10% kcal fat) with those eating a high fat diet (HFD; 60% kcal fat) for 10 weeks (final age 14–15 weeks old). Following HFD feeding, adult mice of both sexes exhibited decreased muscle spindle afferent responses to muscle movement. Muscle spindle afferent firing rates during the plateau phase of stretch were significantly lower in both male and female HFD animals as were two measures of dynamic sensitivity (dynamic peak and dynamic index). Muscle spindle afferents in male mice on a HFD were also significantly less likely to entrain to vibration. Due to the importance of muscle spindle afferents to proprioception and motor control, decreased muscle spindle afferent responsiveness may contribute to balance instability during obesity.

Comments

This article was originally published in PLoS ONE, volume 13, issue 5, and is also available online at this link. © 2018 Elahi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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