When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have explored further how exercise has benefits for individual neurons. They observed that when muscles contract during exercise, they release a soup of biochemical signals called myokines. In the presence of these signals neurons grow four times further compared to neurons that were not exposed to myokines. The results published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials highlight the connection between muscles and nerves during exercise, which could inform exercise related therapies for repairing damaged and deteriorating nerves in the future.