# Role of Skeletal Muscle Health on Poor LIfestyle Related Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

> **NIH NIH R01** · AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $629,296

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Population-based studies have traditionally focused on measurement of body fat (i.e. obesity) to assess the
contribution of poor lifestyles to insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk. While much less recognized is the
role of skeletal muscle in these conditions. Built on our proposed biobehavioral model which incorporates multi-
dimensional evaluation of skeletal muscle health (i.e. mass, function, strength, and intermuscular fat infiltration)
and its molecular transducer (i.e. myokine response to whole body vibration), the fundamental objective of this
proposal is to evaluate the systemic contribution of skeletal muscle health in mediating the role of obesogenic
lifestyles (i.e. psychosocial stress, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity) on insulin resistance and the
development of preclinical markers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (i.e. arterial stiffness, carotid intima media
thickness and endothelial function). To evaluate the impact of environmental factors on manifestation of
biological markers, genetic influences must be controlled. Building on our Georgia CV Twin Study which has
evaluated a multi-ethnic twin samples of 532 twin pairs with roughly equal number of African Americans (AA)
and European Americans (EA) 4 times over 15 years and has physical activity and psychosocial stress
collected during these visits, we will conduct one additional follow-up visit (age range 22-45 yrs) to measure
skeletal muscle health, insulin resistance and preclinical markers of CVD. The specific aims are to test the
hypotheses that: (1) Obesogenic lifestyle factors (i.e. psychosocial stress, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet)
will jointly or distinctively impair skeletal muscle health, and impaired skeletal muscle health will be the pathway
through which obesogenic lifestyle factors exert their influence on insulin resistance and preclinical markers of
CVD. (2) Myokine response to whole body vibration will be the molecular transducers mediating the effect of
skeletal muscle health on insulin resistance and preclinical markers of CVD. (3) Ethnicity and gender may
modify the influence of obesogenic lifestyle factors upon aim 1 and 2. The secondary aims are: (1) To examine
whether skeletal muscle health can explain the health disparity between AAs and EAs in the risk of type 2
diabetes and CVD. (2) To examine the potential effects of gene-environment interactions on skeletal muscle
response to obesogenic lifestyles. This proposal represents a paradigm shift by focusing on impairments in
skeletal muscle rather than adiposity as a cause of poor lifestyle induced metabolic and vascular dysfunction.
This information can not only guide the effective dissemination of the knowledge and increase the success rate
of behavior changes, but also has the potential to generate new treatment strategies targeting the critical
illness in which skeletal muscle as a determinant of survival. Furthermore, increased understanding of the
mechanisms contri...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10475714
- **Project number:** 5R01DK117365-05
- **Recipient organization:** AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ryan A Harris
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $629,296
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-24 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10475714

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10475714, Role of Skeletal Muscle Health on Poor LIfestyle Related Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk (5R01DK117365-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10475714. Licensed CC0.

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