Division of Athletic Training

Faculty Profile

Timothy Butterfield, PhD, ATC

Department of Rehabilitation Sciences

CT Wethington Building, Room 210B

900 South Limestone Ave

Lexington, KY 40536-0200

Office: 859-323-1100 Ext 80840

Laboratory: 859-323-1100 Ext. 80887

Fax: 859-323-6005

Recent Publications

PubMed Links

Curriculum Vitae

tim.butterfield@uky.edu

Dr. Butterfield is a NATABOC certified athletic trainer and assistant professor in the Division of Athletic Training.

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the plasticity of skeletal muscle. Currently, I am exploring the potential role of directly measured fiber dynamics and force production during eccentric and concentric exercise on muscle damage and functional adaptation. My experimental models include in-vivo ambulation and exercise models that allow the direct, real time measurements of mechanical properties and performance of skeletal muscle during modified use. Although it is known that muscle adapts following some forms of exercise, the mechanisms that govern these adaptive processes remain unknown at the cellular level. These adaptations may be related to the mechanical micro-environment of individual fibers within the matrix of skeletal muscle, and not to the performance of the muscle as a whole, as the intact muscle-tendon unit behaves in a disassociated manner compared to the muscle fibers during exercise. Recently, we have begun a series of experiments to elucidate the role of stretch-activated ion channels in the functional, exercise specific adaptation of skeletal muscle following long-tern exercise. In addition, the mechanisms whereby sarcomeres are added to muscle both in parallel and in series may have complimentary but disparate mechanisms specific to exercise type. My intentions in the future are to understand the cell processes that govern these mechanisms of sarcomere addition and subtraction in healthy skeletal muscle, in an effort to apply this knowledge to diseased muscle that fails to adapt to modified use, such as Dystrophic muscle. Ultimately, I would like my lab to incorporate these models to look at tissue mechanics from a “whole organ” perspective, not as an isolated unit, where muscle function impacts bone, cartilage, and ligament health.