title: Effects of exercise on neuromuscular junction components across age: systematic review of animal experimental studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  During almost one-third of our life, maturation of the nervous system promotes strength and muscle mass increase. However, as age advances, the nervous system begins to suffer a slow and continue reduction of its functions. Neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is one of the structures of which change due to aging process. Physical training leads to significant adjustments in NMJs of young and aged animals. Nevertheless, studies that aimed to investigate this effect have, in many cases, methodological variables that may have some influence on the result. Thus, this study aimed to carry out a systematic review about the effects of exercise training on the NMJ compartments of young, adult and aged animals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scielo and Lilacs databases for animal experimental studies that studied exercise effects on the NMJs components across age. After inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included nine articles in systematic review and two for meta-analysis (young/adult NMJ).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified that exercise training cause NMJ hypertrophy on young animals and NMJ compression on aged ones. However, many methodological issues such as age, skeletal muscle and fibers type, and type of exercise and training protocol might influence the results. Graphical abstract: Flow gram is actually to be show at results section as Fig 1.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Morphoquantitative Studies and Immunohistochemistry, Physical Education Department, São Judas Tadeu University, Unidade Mooca, Rua Taquari, 546, Mooca, P.O Box: 03166-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. wild_krause@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Krause Neto
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Histology and Electron Microscopy, Physical Education Department, "Julio de Mesquita Filho" São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil. apciena@rc.unesp.br.
authors.forename: Adriano Polican
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Ciena
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Histology and Electron Microscopy, Physical Education Department, "Julio de Mesquita Filho" São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil. anaruma@rc.unesp.br.
authors.forename: Carlos Alberto
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Anaruma
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Morphoquantitative Studies and Immunohistochemistry, Physical Education Department, São Judas Tadeu University, Unidade Mooca, Rua Taquari, 546, Mooca, P.O Box: 03166-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. souzarrd@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: Romeu Rodrigues
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Morphoquantitative Studies and Immunohistochemistry, Physical Education Department, São Judas Tadeu University, Unidade Mooca, Rua Taquari, 546, Mooca, P.O Box: 03166-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. efgama@profaeliane.net.
authors.forename: Eliane Florencio
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Gama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000502:physiology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar