Abstract
Skeletal muscle is essential for movement and general health. However, muscle mass is lost with advancing age, which reduces mobility and increases the risk of developing chronic diseases. The network of small blood vessels in muscle may play an important role in age-related muscle loss.
This thesis shows that the number of small blood vessels in skeletal muscle of older adults is important for maintenance and perfusion of muscle. Research in this thesis also demonstrates that aerobic exercise training can increase the number of small blood vessels in muscle of older adults. It was also shown that resistance exercise training is very effective to increase muscle mass in older adults. However, improving the network of small blood vessels with aerobic exercise training did not further improve muscle mass gains during resistance exercise training.
This thesis also shows that the network of small blood vessels is further worsened in older adults suffering from the lung disease COPD when compared with healthy older adults. This means that it may be even more important to improve the network of small blood vessels for older adults with chronic diseases. Finally, research in this thesis demonstrates that sauna use can increase the number of small blood vessels in muscle of older adults. This means that sauna could be an alternative or complementary to exercise training to further improve the network of small blood vessels in muscle.
Defence date: 09/01/2026
