New research from scientists at the University of Florida suggests that activity inside the muscle might determine whether patients with peripheral artery disease will regain their strength.
Peripheral artery disease is a “vascular illness that affects over 200 million people worldwide, causing leg arteries to constrict – usually due to plaque buildup. As blood flow lessens, patients may suffer leg pain, especially when walking.” At its worst stage, patients can develop “chronic limb-threatening ischemia – reduced blood flow that results in precisely what its name suggests: amputation, or limb loss.”
The new study, published in Circulation, found that the “buildup of fat inside skeletal muscle…directly affects how well muscles work in patients with advanced peripheral artery disease.” This fat “marbling” can be an instigator of limb weakness. Current treatments center on replenishing blood flow but “are not designed to address the presence of fat inside muscle.”
In people with peripheral artery disease, the genes responsible for creating fat cells were “much more active than those in individuals without the disease.” The study suggests that “changing muscle composition plays an important role in the outcome, challenging the prevailing view that peripheral artery disease is solely a vascular problem.”
