There is some conflicting evidence on the benefit of exercise. Tsai et al have found that the normal training effect on the glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) gene expression was completely eliminated by both acute and chronic ischemia at the pre-translational level. In addition, the chronic ischemia-induced muscle atrophy was seen to be more severe in the exercise-trained rats than in the untrained rats. This result suggests that for individuals with impaired microvascular conditions, exercise training might not be beneficial in maintaining muscle mass. Thus the effect of exercise training in human subjects with IC (ischaemia) is yet to be elucidated.