Intensive care Muscle Wasting and Weakness Underlying Mechanisms, Muscle Specific Differences and a Specific Intervention Strategy

Sammanfattning: The intensive care unit (ICU) condition, i.e., immobilisation, sedation and mechanical ventilation, often results in severe muscle wasting and weakness as well as a specific acquired myopathy, i.e., Acute Quadriplegic Myopathy (AQM). The exact mechanisms underlying AQM remain incomplete, but this myopathy is characterised a preferential myosin loss and a decreased muscle membrane leading to a delayed recovery from the primary disease, increased mortality and morbidity and altered quality of life of survivors. This project aims at improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the muscle wasting and weakness associated with AQM and explore the effects of a specific intervention strategy. Time-resolved analyses have been undertaken using a unique experimental rodent ICU model and specifically studying the muscle wasting and weakness in limb and diaphragm muscles over a two week period. Further, we used passive mechanical loading in an attempt to alleviate the impaired muscle function and wasting associated with the ICU condition. Subsequently, the knowledge gained from the animal model was translated into a clinical study. Mechanical silencing (absence of external and internal strain) due to immobilisation, pharmacological neuromuscular blockade and sedation, was identified as a key factor triggering the muscle wasting and weakness associated with AQM in limb muscles. In addition, MuRF1, a member of the ubiquitin proteasome degradation pathway is playing a major role in the contractile protein degradation observed in both the diaphragm and limb muscles offering a potential candidate for future therapeutic approaches. Moreover, passive mechanical loading resulted in significant positive effects on muscle structure and function in the rodent ICU model, decreasing muscle atrophy and the loss of force generating capacity. In ICU patients passive mechanical loading improved the muscle fibre force generating capacity but did not affect muscle wasting. Nevertheless, this work strongly supports the importance of early physical therapy and mobilization in deeply sedated and mechanically ventilated ICU patients.Furthermore, we observed significant differences in the phenotype and mechanism underlying the loss of force generating capacity between the diaphragm and limb muscles in response to controlled mechanical ventilation (CMV) and immobilisation. This knowledge will have to be taken into account when designing intervention strategies to alleviate the muscle wasting and weakness that occurs in mechanically ventilated and immobilized ICU patients.