Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

W.M. Keck Science Department

Second Department

Biology

Reader 1

Jenna Monroy

Reader 2

Pete Chandrangsu

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2024 Susan Park

Abstract

Aging is a key factor contributing to the decline in muscle performance, significantly impacting mobility and independence in older adults. Titin, a large muscle protein, has been known to be involved in muscle function and passive stiffness. However, little is known about how titin changes with that decline in muscle function with age. Thus, this study focused on the role of titin in age-related muscle function changes, using the mouse model with a 75% deletion in the PEVK region of the titin (exons 112 to 158). We conducted a series of jumping and swimming tests on young and old mice across wild-type and Ttn Δ112-158 mutant strains to see how variations in titin’s structure affect muscle performance. Our methodology involved high-speed video capture to analyze jump peak height and jump velocity and stroke analysis to assess swim time duration and limb paddle frequency. We hypothesized that the age-related decline in physical performance is linked to alterations in titin's genotype and, consequently, its function. The results showed that the young wild-type mice outperformed the Ttn Δ112-158 mutants in both jump and swim tests. Notably, the old Ttn Δ112-158 mice displayed significantly poorer performance than the young Ttn Δ112-158 mice, showing the impact of age and titin's structural changes on muscle function. While the young wild-type and Ttn Δ112-158 mice presented similar swim time durations, the old Ttn Δ112-158 mice had lower limb paddle frequencies and jump velocities than their younger mice, illustrating that age-related decline in physical performance is associated with changes in titin. These findings support our hypothesis that changes in titin contribute to muscle performance decline with age.

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