Vastus lateralis biopsies from healthy and COPD patients before and after 8 weeks of exercise training

Study the training exercise effects in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and aged-matched healthy individuals. Skeletal muscle biopsies from 9 stable COPD patients with normal fat free mass index (FFMI, 21Kg/m2) (COPDN), 6 COPD patients with low FFMI (16Kg/m2) (COPL), and 12 healthy sedentary subjects (FFMI 21Kg/m2) before and after 8 weeks of a supervised endurance exercise program were analyzed. Samples were collected from open biopsies from the musculus vastus lateralis of COPD patients and healthy individuals before and after 8 weeks of exercise training. Constant-work rate exercise at 70% of pre-training Watts peak (Wpeak) (CardiO2 cycle Medical Graphics Corporation, USA) was carried out before and after 8 weeks of supervised interval training with a cycloergometer until pre-training endurance time exhaustion. Measurements before and after training were obtained at isowork-rate and iso-time.