Cachexia, sarcopenia and anorexia are characterised by muscle wasting. This condition is a
weakening, shrinking, and loss of muscle caused by a disease or lack of use. The loss of muscle
causes a decrease in strength and inability to move compromising the quality of life. Recently
we demonstrated that the skeletal muscle of endurance trained Balb/c mice release IL-6 and
Hsp60 (inside exosomes) in the blood stream.
We studied the expression of Hsp60 in the muscles of trained and untrained C26-bearing
mice, to understand if Hsp60 was over-expression may improve muscle performance and
reduce cachexia. Four different interleukins have been also studied in cachectic mice, to understand
which was their effect on Hsp60 expression both in the tumor mass and the trained muscle.
In the present study we demonstrated that: 1) IL-6 is released by the trained muscle; 2) IL-6
is release also by the tumor mass, 3) in animals inoculated with the C26 tumor and trained after
inoculation, IL-6 is synthesized mainly by the skeletal muscle and the tumor mass undergo
apoptosis
