After a warm welcome by Professor Chadwick (Head of The School of Clinical Sciences at The University of Liverpool) and Anne McArdle (co-organiser), including the now customary mention of the Successful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture and Liverpool's success in the Champions League football final, Malcolm Jackson (Liverpool, UK) opened the meeting with an overview of the importance of ROS generation by muscle during exercise and ageing.
Two excellent presentations were than given by Professor Archie Young (Edinburgh, UK) and Professor John Faulkner (Michigan, USA). One most impressive aspect of these presentations was that with a combined age approaching 150 these two eminent scientists are clearly advocates of excellent research into ageing! Professor Young clearly demonstrated that despite the age-associated loss of muscle strength, regular physical training has the potential to gain strengths that are equivocal to 10-20 years rejuvenation. Professor Faulkner followed this with the example of a 74 year old person who ran a sub- 3 hour marathon before presenting his very latest research using single muscle fibre preparations.
The conference organisers and attendees where delighted that Professor James Tidball (UCLA, USA) and Professor Michael Reid (University of Kentucky, USA) made the trip across the Atlantic. Both presentations gave an exciting insight into the cellular mechanisms responsible for muscle catabolism during ageing in rodents.
Closer to home, Professor David Goldspink (Liverpool John Moores University, UK) moved the session back to a human model, discussing the age-related deterioration in cardiac muscle and the functional reserve capacity of the heart in healthy men and women.
Following a well earned coffee break, Dr Holly van Remmen (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA) described altered mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle of ageing mice lacking specific antioxidant enzymes and Dr Sue Brooks (University of Michigan, USA) followed this with an engaging discussion on the mechanisms of contraction-induced muscle damage in young and old animals.
The first day of presentations were concluded by one of the conference organisers, Anne McArdle, (Liverpool, UK) who discussed the functional effects of failure of adaptive responses in skeletal muscle during ageing.
The oral presentations were followed by a poster session and wine reception kindly sponsored by Unilever. The posters (and wine) were of exceptional quality and prizes were awarded to Miss Anna Kayani (Liverpool) and Dr Tapi Magwere (UCL).
Most of the delegates were then ‘shipped' to the spectacular setting of the Maritime Museum at The Albert Dock for the conference dinner. With the wine flowing, the delegates had a tremendous time and many new friends were made. One or two of the delegates were led a little astray after the dinner with the bars of Liverpool reported enhanced profit on Thursday night!
Day 2 was opened with a fascinating presentation by Professor Marie Csete (Emory University, Atlanta, USA) on muscle stem cell proliferation and differentiation from antioxidant deficient mice. Marie clearly demonstrated that changes in antioxidant gene expression results in the defective regeneration of myoblasts suggesting a key role for ROS in muscle regeneration.
The next speaker was Professor Gillian Butler-Browne (Paris, France) who discussed the effects of ageing on human muscle satellite cells. During ageing there is a decrease in the total number of satellite cells. Dr Butler-Browne proposed moderate training may be beneficial in maintaining the pool of muscle stem or satellite cells. However, caution must be exerted since Dr Butler-Browne also demonstrated that prolonged endurance training may have the reverse effect and deplete the satellite cell pool. Dr Jonathan Beauchamp (Imperial College London, UK) expanded on the biochemistry of muscle satellite cells, suggesting that satellite cell pool can be maintained by a process of self-renewal.
There then followed four free communications from Dr Adrian Lambert (Cambridge, UK), Dr Mari-Carmen Gomez-Cabrera (Valencia, Spain) Dr Tapi Magwere (UCL) Jill Saffrey (Open University). The prize was presented to Adrian Lambert who presented on mechanisms of low mitochondrial free radical production by long lived organisms although all 4 presenters where very worthy of this recognition.
After coffee and re-hydration for those who had been led astray, Brian Merry (Liverpool) put us all off our lunches by explaining that one of the only ways known to extend lifespan is though dietary restriction. Brian discussed the mechanisms responsible for the extension in lifespan by calorie restriction in a rodent model in particular focusing on cellular signalling and gene expression.
The session continued with Thomas von Zglinicki (Newcastle) presenting on ROS telomeres and senescence. Alan Morgan (Liverpool) could well have used the phrase ‘and now for something completely different' as he presented a proteomic approach to ageing research in yeast. The session was concluded by Arlan Richardson (Texas). Arlan has been using transgenic and knock out mice to test the oxidative stress theory of ageing and concluded that alteration of certain antioxidant defence enzymes, despite resulting in increased oxidative stress had no significant effects on lifespan.
The conference organisers would like to thank BBSRC, Physiological Society, Research into Ageing, Unilever, British Heart Foundation, Biochemical Society, The Institute of Human Ageing and DSM for sponsoring this meeting. All attendees agreed that the meeting was a complete success both intellectually and socially!
