Short-term treatment of Agastache rugosa extract combined with voluntary wheel running exercise alters the size and type of skeletal muscle fibers and improves anabolic resistance in middle-aged mice

Exercise and nutrition are primary interventions for preventing and managing sarcopenia. Although combining the two interventions would provide an additive effect, combined effects remain largely unexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether the short-term AR and voluntary wheel running (VWR) treatments contribute to attenuating alterations in the anabolic resistance in middle-aged mice. Middle-aged (40-week-old) C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to five groups, receiving either AR with VWR or AR without VWR for 4 weeks. AR and VWR had a shared or separate mechanism of action: their combination had additive effects, leading to increased phosphorylation of the Akt, FOXO protein and inhibition of downstream MuRF-1 and Atrogin-1 mRNA expressions, inhibiting protein degradation. These results propose a potential benefit of AR supplementation and aerobic exercise as a strategy to delay the onset or attenuate the progression of age-associated loss of skeletal muscle mass and function.