How Exercise Helps Nerves: MIT Discovers Muscle Power
MIT scientists have discovered that exercising muscles release special proteins and physical stretches that help nerves grow four times faster.
Have you ever wondered what happens inside your body when you dash across a school playground or kick a football with your classmates? On 12 November 2024, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, in Cambridge, United States, shared a wonderful discovery about how exercise helps nerves grow much faster.
For many years, doctors and researchers knew that our nerves act like telephone wires, sending instructions to tell our muscles when to move. However, this exciting new study reveals that when muscles work hard, they actively talk back to our nerves, encouraging them to stretch and become stronger!
What happened?
The research was published in the scientific journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. It was led by Dr. Ritu Raman, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, along with lead author Angel Bu. Their team also included scientists Ferdows Afghah, Nicolas Castro, Maheera Bawa, Sonika Kohli, Karina Shah, Brandon Rios, and Vincent Butty.
To explore this friendly biological chat, the researchers grew mouse muscle cells in their laboratory until they formed working sheets of muscle. They genetically modified these special cells so they would squeeze and contract whenever flashes of light shone on them.
When the muscle sheets flexed during this exercise, they released biochemical messenger proteins called myokines into the area around them. Next, the scientists tested what would happen when motor neurons, which are the nerves that control movement, met these myokines.
The results were truly remarkable. The motor neurons exposed to these exercise-made myokines grew long connecting branches called axons that reached four times farther than those without the proteins!
The scientists also wanted to know if physical stretching alone helps nerves, separate from any chemical signals. They placed motor neurons onto a special gel containing tiny magnetic microparticles and used magnets to pull the gel back and forth, mimicking the tugging of a flexing muscle.
They found that this mechanical stretching encouraged nerve growth just as effectively as the chemical myokines. Genetic tests also proved that these stimulated nerves did not simply get longer; they switched on helpful genes that helped them mature and communicate even better with muscles.
Why does it matter to you?
Whether you are playing kabaddi in the schoolyard, skipping rope with your neighbours, or cycling down your street, your body is doing something truly magical. Every time you run and jump, your flexing muscles are sending real signals to your nervous system.
These signals help your nerve fibres stretch out and become stronger partners for your muscles. The scientists believe this discovery could help doctors find new medical treatments to heal injured nerves in the future.
So, the next time your physical education teacher asks you to complete your morning stretches, remember that your muscles are busy looking after your nerves!
Words to know
- Motor neurons: Special nerve cells in your body that carry messages from your brain and spinal cord to make muscles move.
- Axons: Long, thin thread-like parts of nerve cells that send signals out to other cells in the body.
- Myokines: Helpful biochemical messenger proteins that are released by muscle tissue whenever it exercises.
- Microparticles: Extremely tiny specks of matter that are far too small to be seen without a microscope.
Did you know?
The scientists used quick flashes of light to make their lab-grown muscle sheets squeeze and relax, turning light into an exercise workout routine for cells!
Think about it
What is your favourite outdoor game to play with your friends, and how does your body feel after you run around? If our muscles and nerves can talk to each other, what other parts of our bodies might be sharing secret messages?
Quick quiz
How much farther did nerve axons grow when exposed to exercise-induced myokines?
- Two times farther
- Four times farther
- Ten times farther
See the answer
Four times farther
Sources
This story was prepared by the Kids Gazette news desk with the help of AI research and writing tools, using the sources listed above.
