Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Sep;125(9):2431-2447.
doi: 10.1007/s00421-025-05761-x. Epub 2025 Apr 2.

Multidirectional effect of low-intensity neuromuscular electrical stimulation on gene expression and phenotype in thigh and calf muscles after one week of disuse

Anna A Borzykh #  1 , Roman Y Zhedyaev #  1 , Ivan I Ponomarev  1 , Tatiana F Vepkhvadze  1 , Viktor G Zgoda  2 , Mira A Orlova  1 , Nikita E Vavilov  2 , Nikita V Shishkin  1 , Egor M Lednev  1 , Pavel A Makhnovskii  1 , Kristina A Sharlo  1 , Anastasia R Babkova  1 , Galina Yu Vassilieva  1 , Rinat R Gimadiev  1   3 , Boris S Shenkman  1 , Ilya V Rukavishnikov  1 , Oleg I Orlov  1 , Elena S Tomilovskaya  4 , Daniil V Popov  5
Affiliations

Multidirectional effect of low-intensity neuromuscular electrical stimulation on gene expression and phenotype in thigh and calf muscles after one week of disuse

Anna A Borzykh et al. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of a one-week disuse, both with and without low-intensity neuromuscular electrical stimulation-a safe (non-traumatic) approach to prevent the loss of muscle mass, on the functional capacities and gene expression in thigh and calf muscles.

Methods: This study assessed the efficiency of low-intensity (~ 10% of maximal voluntary contraction) electrical stimulation in preventing the negative effects of 7-day disuse (dry immersion without and with daily stimulation) on the strength and aerobic performance of the ankle plantar flexors and knee extensors, mitochondrial function in permeabilized muscle fibers, and the proteomic (quantitative mass spectrometry-based analysis) and transcriptomic (RNA-sequencing) profiles of the soleus muscle and vastus lateralis muscle.

Results: Application of electrical stimulation during dry immersion prevented a decrease in the maximal strength and a slight reduction in aerobic performance of the knee extensors, as well as a decrease in maximal (intrinsic) ADP-stimulated mitochondrial respiration and changes in the expression of genes encoding mitochondrial, extracellular matrix, and membrane proteins in the vastus lateralis muscle. In contrast, for the ankle plantar flexors/soleus muscle, electrical stimulation had a positive effect only on maximal mitochondrial respiration, but slightly accelerated the decline in the maximal strength and muscle fiber cross-sectional area, which appears to be related to the activation of inflammatory genes.

Conclusion: The data obtained open up broad prospects for the use of low-intensity electrical stimulation to prevent the negative effects of disuse for "mixed" muscles, meanwhile, the optimization of the stimulation protocol is required for "slow" muscles.

Keywords: Dry immersion; Electromyostimulation; Inflammation; Proteome; Skeletal muscle; Transcriptome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethical approval: The studies were approved by the Committee on Biomedical Ethics of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the RAS (protocols No 594 of September 6, 2021, and No 620 of July 12, 2022) and complied with all the principles set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki. All volunteers gave written informed consent to participate in the study and to undergo skeletal muscle biopsy.

References

    1. Abadi A, Glover EI, Isfort RJ, Raha S, Safdar A, Yasuda N, Kaczor JJ, Melov S, Hubbard A, Qu X et al (2009) Limb immobilization induces a coordinate down-regulation of mitochondrial and other metabolic pathways in men and women. PLoSOne 4:e6518 - DOI
    1. Abu Shelbayeh O, Arroum T, Morris S, Busch KB (2023) PGC-1alpha is a master regulator of mitochondrial lifecycle and ros stress response. Antioxidants (Basel) 12(5):1075 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Ade CJ, Broxterman RM, Barstow TJ (2015) VO(2max) and microgravity exposure: convective versus diffusive o(2) transport. Med Sci Sports Exerc 47:1351–1361 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Amirova L, Avdeeva M, Shishkin N, Gudkova A, Guekht A, Tomilovskaya E (2022) Effect of modulated electromyostimulation on the motor system of elderly neurological patients Pilot study of Russian currents also known as Kotz currents. Front Physiol 13:921434 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Bouguetoch A, Martin A, Grospretre S (2021) Insights into the combination of neuromuscular electrical stimulation and motor imagery in a training-based approach. Eur J Appl Physiol 121:941–955 - PubMed - PMC - DOI

LinkOut - more resources