Professor Moh Malek among top scientists in skeletal muscle physiology invited to speak at Cells 2021 webinar
Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Moh H. Malek recently gave an invited talk at the Molecular Mechanisms of Exercise and Healthspan webinar. The premise of the webinar was to bring together different methods for examining the role of age-related disease and maintenance of healthy muscle. The scope of research paradigms ranged from drosophila to human model experiments.
Malek’s presentation focused on skeletal muscle dysfunction following total knee arthroplasty. Specifically, he discussed how the unintended consequence of cuffing the thigh during the surgical repair leads to ischemia-reperfusion injury in the muscle. As a result, this increases muscular fatigue in the patient despite having their knee replaced.
Malek’s work suggests that the muscle’s mitochondria is the culprit, which he proposes can be controlled via the infrared light device that was developed by Professor Maik Hüttemann of the Wayne State School of Medicine's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics. This technology has already received three published patents (US Patents 8,945,196; 9,610,460; and 10,071,261).
Malek and Hüttemann have a decade’s worth of collaboration with multiple publications in high-profile physiology journals related to skeletal muscle bioenergetics.
Malek said, “Our approach of using the infrared light to control mitochondrial hyperactivity immediately following ischemia during reperfusion may attenuate signaling pathways associated with muscle atrophy.”
