The effect of walking exercise with blood flow restriction on mTOR signaling pathway in untrained male subjects’ skeletal muscle

The purpose of this study was to study the acute responses to BFR walking exercise on the mTOR signaling pathway in untrained male subjects. five (n=5) apparently healthy untrained male participants were studied identically on two occasions: (1) BFR aerobic exercise consisting of walking at an exercise intensity of 40% VO2max (2) Identical walking exercise without BFR (Ctrl). Each trial was separated by 3 weeks. Muscle biopsy (vastus lateralis) and blood sample (antecubital vein) were obtained pre- and post-exercise in given time points to determine protein expression and changes in GH and IGF-1. Results showed that mTOR and p70S6K phosphorylation levels did not change significantly in both groups (P ˃ 0.05). IGF-1 and GH immediately after exercise increased in BFR group (P˂0.05). Blood lactate did not show any significant change in both groups. We find that the phosphorylation of p70S6K and mTOR did not activate after a bout of walking with blood flow restriction. As result the mTOR signaling pathway is not responsible for stimulating skeletal muscle protein synthesis after BFR walking exercise.