Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Department

Exercise Science

First Advisor

Carson, James A

Abstract

Cachexia contributes to an increased mortality rate in multiple chronic diseases such as: cancer, AIDS, chronic heart failure, and many others. Patients who develop cachexia have unintentional body weight loss, which can include loss of muscle with or without loss of fat mass. The loss of muscle mass and adipose tissue can affect muscle mobility and function and can ultimately decrease quality of life. Thus, it is becoming ever more important to develop therapeutic interventions to help mitigate cachexia-associated wasting. Two naturally found nutraceuticals, quercetin and curcumin, as well as resistance exercise have all been shown to indirectly or directly influence molecular factors involved in increasing net protein synthesis. Thus the purpose of this study was to examine if quercetin or curcumin supplementation, with or without the combination of resistance exercise, could blunt muscle mass loss in colon and lung cancer models of cachexia. Results showed that quercetin, curcumin, and resistance exercise alone increased body weight in cancer cachectic mice. However, the combination treatment of nutraceuticals and resistance exercise was not able to increase body weight. In conclusion, supplementation with quercetin, curcumin, or resistance exercise alone may be potential therapies for attenuating body weight loss as a result of cancer cachexia.

Rights

© 2012, Kandy Tawany Velazquez-Figueroa

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