ScienceDaily (May 9, 2011) — Obesity appears to impair normal muscle function in rats, an observation that could have significant implications for humans, according to Penn State researchers. “Our findings demonstrate that obesity involves more than accumulating excess fat and carrying excess weight,” said Rudolf J. Schilder, American Physiological Society postdoctoral fellow in physiological genomics, Penn State College of Medicine. “We show that, during the development of obesity, skeletal muscles fail to adjust their molecular composition appropriately to the increasing body weight. Consequently, the muscles of obese mammals are not properly ‘tuned’ to the higher body weight they carry.”
