Exercise training improves sarcopenic muscle function via restoration of mitochondrial quality control

Mitophagy is an essential component of the mitochondrial quality control program, maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis in metabolic tissues such as skeletal muscle. With age, it is thought that mitochondrial quality control becomes dysregulated, leading to the progression of age-associated diseases such as sarcopenia. Exercise is known to enhance skeletal muscle mitochondrial health and may be an effective intervention to prevent sarcopenia, however the role of mitophagy in this process is unknown. Utilising mitophagy reporter mice (mito-QC), we assessed adaptations in skeletal muscle mitophagy in response to increased age (3-26 months) and following an 8-week endurance exercise training period. Immunofluorescent imaging revealed that ageing led to an accumulation of mitolysosomes in sarcopenic old mice indicative of increased mitophagy, an adaptive response that was reversed by exercise training. In parallel to reducing age-associated mitophagy, exercise training increased mitochondrial respiratory capacity and improved muscle strength, suggesting that alterations in mitochondrial quality control led to improvements in skeletal muscle function. Exercise-mediated alterations in mitophagy were accompanied by increases in BNIP3, FUNDC1 and BCL2L13 protein content post training. Collectively our data suggests that sarcopenia leads to dysregulation of mitophagy in skeletal muscle. Restoring mitophagy balance with exercise training leads to improvements in mitochondrial respiration and skeletal muscle strength, identifying a novel cellular mechanism to explain the benefits of exercise training in old age.