Recovering muscle strength and mobility after critical illness
Official title: Muscle and physical function recovery after acute critical illness
Funded at University of Kentucky · NIH-11172557 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This research follows adults who survived critical illnesses like ARDS to learn how their muscles and movement recover during the first year after leaving the hospital.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Kentucky NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Lexington, United States) |
| Project start | September 18, 2023 |
| Project end | August 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $407,158 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AR081002-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11172557 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults (generally 21 years and older) who survived acute critical illness such as ARDS or acute respiratory failure and are within the first year after hospital discharge.
✕Less likely to help
People under 21, those without a recent critical illness, or anyone unable or unwilling to undergo serial muscle sampling and repeated clinic visits are unlikely to benefit from participating.
What this research studies
If you survived a serious critical illness such as ARDS or sepsis, researchers will follow you over the first year after hospital discharge to track muscle and physical recovery. They will collect small, repeated muscle tissue samples from the same patients and pair those with physical function tests, patient-reported quality-of-life measures, and clinical data. Laboratory measurements will include muscle protein turnover, cellular signaling pathways, and markers of damage, inflammation, and immune response. The aim is to link cellular changes in muscle with real-world recovery outcomes so future treatments and rehabilitation can be better targeted.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: This work could lead to targeted treatments or rehabilitation strategies that help survivors regain muscle strength and independence after critical illness.
How similar studies have gone: Prior research has linked inflammation and inactivity to post-critical-illness muscle loss, but serial, within-patient muscle biopsies combined with year-long functional follow-up are relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Kentucky
Lexington, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Dupont-Versteegden, Esther E — University of Kentucky
- Study coordinator: Dupont-Versteegden, Esther E
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.