Impact of Heat Stress on Muscle Function
The muscular performance decreases with increased incidence of intense work load and varies with the intensity, duration and mechanisms (shortening, isometric, stretching) involved in the contractions.
The muscle fatigue also enhances the higher accumulation of lactic acid in muscle. The heat generated during skeletal muscle contraction increases body and tissue temperatures. The increased temperatures (>40 °C) of muscle, both due to muscular function and primarily rise in environmental temperature, cause an early onset of fatigue. Additionally, the increased temperatures cause protein unfolding, denaturation and aggregation that further affect the muscle enzyme activity and contractile protein functions. The high temperature and protein denaturation activate the synthesis of heat shock proteins. The increased HSP level supports the skeletal muscle contractions during heat stress and protects cardiac tissue against ischemic stressors. Particularly, the higher expression of Hsp72 ensures protection of skeletal muscle damage in heat stress. In addition, elevated HSPs levels provide a crosstolerance effect to cardiac and skeletal muscle.28.7
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