Of worms and women: Sarcopenia and its role in disability and mortality
Of worms and women: Sarcopenia and its role in disability and mortality
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52320.x
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发表时间：
2004-07-01
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Fisher, AL
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fisher, AL
衰老过程中肌肉质量的损失被称为肌肉减少症。肌肉减少症会导致衰老过程中体力下降，从而对受影响更严重的个体产生重要影响，影响其功能，并成为残疾和死亡率增加的标志。尽管这种情况具有临床重要性，但导致肌肉减少症发生的病理生理学尚不清楚，并且很少有治疗方法可以预防或逆转这种情况。最近，人们发现线虫秀丽隐杆线虫在衰老过程中会出现肌肉减少症，这种生物体越来越多地用于研究与衰老有关的遗传和生化事件。与人类一样，秀丽隐杆线虫的肌肉减少症会导致活动能力下降，并成为死亡率增加的标志。有趣的是，影响age-1基因的突变可以减缓动物的衰老，导致肌肉减少症的发展显着延迟，这表明机体衰老与肌肉减少症之间存在直接因果关系。这些发现表明，在人类和线虫中，肌肉减少症可能代表个体生物年龄（而不是实际年龄）的生物标志物。这些发现还表明，线虫将发展成为一个重要的模型系统，用于研究导致肌肉减少症的生化和遗传学事件，并测试旨在预防或逆转肌肉减少症的疗法。
The loss of muscle mass during aging has been termed sarcopenia. Sarcopenia results in a decrease in physical strength during aging that results in important consequences for more severely affected individuals in terms of function and as a marker for disability and increased mortality. Despite the clinical importance of this condition, the pathophysiology leading to the development of sarcopenia is not well understood, and few treatments exist to prevent or reverse the condition. Recently, sarcopenia has been found to occur during aging in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which is an organism increasingly used to study genetic and biochemical events involved in aging. Like in humans, sarcopenia in C. elegans leads to declines in mobility and serves as a marker for increased mortality. Interestingly, mutations affecting the age-1 gene, which slows aging of the animal, result in significant delays in the development of sarcopenia, suggesting a direct causal relationship between organismal aging and sarcopenia. These findings suggest that, in humans and worms, sarcopenia may represent a biomarker for the biological age, as opposed to chronological age, of the individual. These findings also suggest that C. elegans will develop into an important model system in which to study the biochemical and genetics events responsible for sarcopenia and to test therapeutics designed to prevent or reverse sarcopenia.