Pretreatment of Mice with 830 nm Light Enhances Endurance During Acute Exercise
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muscles-04-00048.pdf
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3.28 MB
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db7d0ea64f4b127cfadbbf8c74b96c0e
Author(s)
Cheema, Nashwa
Ghag, Namrata
Pham, Linh
Wise, Emma
Fuchs, Christiane
Anderson, Rox
Tam, Joshua
Date Issued
October 23, 2025
Journal
Muscles
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Cheema, N.; Ghag, N.;
Pham, L.; Wise, E.; Fuchs, C.;
Anderson, R.; Tam, J. Pretreatment of
Mice with 830 nm Light Enhances
Endurance During Acute Exercise.
Muscles 2025, 4, 48.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Light therapy has been shown to produce several beneficial physiological effects in a wide range of tissues. The musculoskeletal system can be irradiated with deeply penetrating wavelengths in near infrared (NIR) regions. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) reduces pain and inflammation and enhances physical performance. However, the mechanism(s) of cellular responses to PBMT in muscle is not clearly understood. Therefore, the goal of this study is to improve our understanding of the mechanism(s) of action of PBMT effects in exercised and sedentary muscle. In sedentary mice, PBMT using a wavelength of 830 nm increased the gene expression for muscle tissue development, including cFos, which is critical for activating interstitial and satellite cells that repair muscle. Immunostaining for cFOS expression confirmed an increase in the number of activated cells in PBMT-treated muscle. We observed that PBMT-treated mice showed increased performance on the treadmill, reduced muscle fiber damage, and altered mitochondrial structure. RNA sequencing from fatigued TA tissue suggested that PBMT treatment increased the gene expression of tissue regeneration and remodeling, suggesting tissue adaptation and muscle repair after exercise with PBMT. In conclusion, our study suggests that the 830 nm wavelength may have altered the muscle by activating regenerative genes that protect the tissue from exercise-induced cellular stress.
MIT Department
Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/muscles4040048
