Skeletal muscle research focuses on improving health span

Friday, December 19, 2025

Media Contact: Bailey Horn | Marketing Specialist | 405-744-6728 | bailey.horn@okstate.edu

At the Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Joshua Butcher is studying skeletal muscle as a key regulator of health across species. An integrative physiologist, Butcher’s research examines how skeletal muscle function — or dysfunction — contributes to disease and aging in animals and humans.

Butcher has training in chemistry, cardiometabolic physiology and novel therapeutics. His lab focuses on skeletal muscle itself rather than exercise behaviors. The lab studies muscle size, strength, fatigue and metabolic function to understand how changes in muscle influence overall health.

“Skeletal muscle is the largest organ in most animals by mass,” Butcher said. “Because it is diffuse, it is often overlooked. When muscle function declines, it can affect the entire system.”

Using a One Health approach, Butcher collaborates with veterinarians and scientists to study skeletal muscle across various species. His lab manipulates skeletal muscle through genetic, pharmaceutical and nutritional methods, then introduces disease models to evaluate whether improved muscle health can reduce disease severity.

A major focus of Butcher’s work is aging and health span, or the length of time an individual remains healthy during life. He studies sarcopenia, the natural loss of muscle mass that occurs with age, and sarcopenic obesity, a condition marked by both muscle loss and obesity. Butcher describes obesity as a form of premature aging that accelerates muscle dysfunction and increases disease risk earlier in life.

Recent research from Butcher’s lab examined the role of skeletal muscle in type 1 diabetes. In a study published earlier this year, researchers used a mouse model with enhanced glycolytic muscle fibers and chemically removed insulin. Mice with greater muscle mass and function showed reduced severity of diabetic symptoms over a 30-day period.

The findings support Butcher’s broader hypothesis that skeletal muscle acts as a biological buffer against disease. When muscle mass and function are preserved, disease outcomes are often less severe.

Butcher’s long-term goal is to identify strategies, including targeted exercise, nutrition and future therapeutics, that maintain skeletal muscle health, protect against chronic disease and extend health span across species.