Study overturns scientific ideas on energy distribution in muscle

A new study overturns longstanding scientific ideas regarding how energy is distributed within muscles for powering movement. Scientists are reporting the first clear evidence that muscle cells distribute energy primarily by the rapid conduction of electrical charges through a vast, interconnected network of mitochondria, the cell’s “powerhouse”, in a way that resembles the wire grid that distributes power throughout a city. The study offers an unprecedented, detailed look at the distribution system that rapidly provides energy throughout the cell where it is needed for muscle contraction.
The scientists accomplished the results using state-of-the-art imaging technologies at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This new information may lead to a better understanding of many diseases linked to energy utilization in the heart and skeletal muscle such as heart disease, mitochondrial diseases, and muscular dystrophy, they say.
“The discovery of this mechanism for rapid distribution of energy throughout the muscle cell will change the way scientists think about muscle function and will open up a whole new area to explore in health and disease,” says Robert S. Balaban, Ph.D.