PHILADELPHIA — Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at
the University of Pennsylvania have identified a gene for
endurance, or more precisely, a negative regulator of it. Not
having the gene relates to greater endurance in the knockout
mice that were studied. The investigators also showed that the
gene is linked to Olympic-level athletes in endurance sports
such as swimming compared to athletes in sprint sports such as
the 100-meter dash. The study appears online this week in the
Journal of Clinical Investigation. The work has implications for
improving muscle performance in disease states including
metabolic disorders, obesity, and aging. "We have shown that
mice lacking the gene run six times longer than control mice and
that the fatigable muscles of the mouse -- the fast muscle in
the front of the leg -- have been reprogrammed and are now
fatigue-resistant," explains senior author Tejvir S. Khurana,
MD, PhD, professor of Physiology and member of the Pennsylvania
Muscle Institute. "This has wide r