Neuromuscular electrical stimulation prevents muscle disuse atrophy during leg immobilization in humans

Aim Short periods of muscle disuse, due to illness or injury, result in substantial skeletal muscle atrophy. Recently, we have shown that a single session of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) increases muscle protein synthesis rates. The aim was to investigate the capacity for daily NMES to attenuate muscle atrophy during short‐term muscle disuse. Methods Twenty‐four healthy, young (23 ± 1 year) males participated in the present study. Volunteers were subjected to 5 days of one‐legged knee immobilization with (NMES; n = 12) or without (CON; n = 12) supervised NMES sessions (40‐min sessions, twice daily). Two days prior to and immediately after the immobilization period, CT scans and single‐leg one‐repetition maximum (1RM) strength tests were performed to assess quadriceps muscle cross‐sectional area (CSA) and leg muscle strength respectively. Furthermore, muscle biopsies were taken to assess muscle fibre CSA, satellite cell content and mRNA and protein expression of selected genes. Results In CON, immobilization reduced quadriceps CSA by 3.5 ± 0.5% (P