Edward F. Adolph Distinguished Lecture: Muscle as an endocrine organ: IL-6 and other myokines

Pedersen BK. Edward F. Adolph Distinguished Lecture: Muscle as an endocrine organ: IL-6 and other myokines. J Appl Physiol 107: 1006-1014, 2009. First published August 20, 2009; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00734.2009.-Skeletal muscle is an endocrine organ that produces and releases myokines in response to contraction. Some myokines are likely to work in a hormone-like fashion, exerting specific endocrine effects on other organs such as the liver, the brain, and the fat. Other myokines will work locally via paracrine mechanisms, exerting, e. g., angio-genetic effects, whereas yet other myokines work via autocrine mechanisms and influence signaling pathways involved in fat oxidation and glucose uptake. The finding that muscles produce and release myokines creates a paradigm shift and opens new scientific, technological, and scholarly horizons. This finding represents a breakthrough within integrative physiology and contributes to our understanding of why regular exercise protects against a wide range of chronic diseases. Thus the myokine field provides a conceptual basis for the molecular mechanisms underlying, e. g., muscle-fat, muscle-liver, muscle-pancreas, and muscle-brain cross talk.