Muscle resilience across the life course: from cells to society

全世界进入老年的人数正在迅速增加，然而，尽管人们活得更长，他们却并不健康。现在，英国成年人在生命的最后十年里健康状况不佳，给健康和社会保健服务带来了巨大的负担。随着年龄的增长，我们身体的一个重大变化是肌肉组织的损失，到80岁时，肌肉质量损失高达50%。肌肉是我们身体中重要的组织，因为它对运动、姿势和食物作为能量的使用方式至关重要。随着年龄的增长，肌肉的流失使日常活动变得更加困难，增加了身体虚弱、跌倒和受伤的风险，并增加了患心脏病、糖尿病和痴呆等疾病的风险。肌肉损失是老年人失去独立能力的最大原因，所以随着年龄的增长，通过健康的饮食和积极的生活方式来保持肌肉的健康（弹性）是很重要的。当肌肉老化时，会发生一些事情：肌肉纤维变得更小，数量更少，肌肉含有更多的脂肪和纤维组织，肌肉组织自我修复和更新的能力下降。并不是每个人都以同样的方式变老——事实上，当我们观察大量的老年人时，会发现有很大的差异。人与人之间的一些差异可以用个体遗传的基因来解释。剩下的大部分变异是由于一个人的生活环境。我们做多少运动、吃什么食物、教育背景、生活舒适还是贫困等因素都起着重要作用。尽管世界各地的科学家都在努力了解肌肉老化的原因，但这是一个如此复杂的问题，我们需要找到新的方法来解决它。在过去，研究人员倾向于关注问题的一部分，在他们是专家的领域。我们计划采用一种新的方法，从单独研究单个系统转向联合研究，从微观水平到人口规模，我们研究所有尺度的肌肉衰老。我们还将与来自数学、人工智能、社会科学和地理等其他学科的研究人员合作，寻找解决肌肉衰老问题的新方法。该网络的目的是将研究人员、企业、个人和组织聚集在一起，从许多领域的研究中受益，为肌肉健康提供新的见解，并了解导致肌肉衰老的途径。具体来说，我们将：建立一个由广泛学科的研究人员组成的全国性网络，专注于肌肉弹性和衰老，贯穿整个生命周期，跨越各个尺度。增加对影响肌肉老化的机制和个体间差异的理解。为早期职业科学家和技术人员提供借调和培训。与政策制定者、卫生保健从业人员、行业和患者团体合作，将我们的见解转化为改善健康效益，制定新的预防和治疗战略。我们网络活动的成果将是广泛的，从新的科学见解、新技术的应用、跨学科的拨款提案、跨学科的培训和知识交流，到帮助制定国家一级的政策。统一的目标是缓解与肌肉老化和活动能力丧失有关的主要社会问题。

The number of people living into old age is increasing rapidly throughout the world, however although people live longer, they are not healthier. Adults in the UK now spend the last decade of life in poor health, placing a large burden on health and social care services. One of the big changes in our bodies as we age is the loss of muscle tissue, with up to 50% of muscle mass being lost by 80 years of age. Muscle is an important tissue in our body, as it is vital for movement, posture and the way in which food is used as energy. The loss of muscle during ageing makes it harder to carry out day-to-day activities, increases frailty and the risk of falls and injuries, and increases the risk of conditions like heart disease, diabetes and dementia. Muscle loss is the single largest reason for losing independence in old age, so it is important to keep our muscles healthy (resilient) as we grow older, by eating well and leading an active lifestyle.When muscles age, several things happen: muscle fibres become smaller and fewer in number, the muscle contains more fat and fibrous tissue, and the ability of muscle tissue to repair and renew itself decreases. Not everyone ages in the same way - in fact there is a great deal of variation when we look at large numbers of older people. Some of the differences between people can be explained by the genes an individual inherits. Much of the remaining variation is due to a person's life circumstances. Factors like how much exercise we take, the food we eat, our educational background and whether we live comfortably or in poverty all play a major role. Although scientists around the world have worked hard to understand the causes of muscle ageing, it is such a complex problem that we need to find new ways to tackle it. In the past, researchers have tended to focus on one part of the problem, in an area where they are expert. We plan to take a new approach that shifts away from studying single systems on their own and move towards a combined effort where we study muscle ageing across all scales from the microscopic level to the scale of populations. We will also join forces with researchers from other disciplines like mathematics, artificial intelligence, social sciences and geography to find new approaches to solving the big questions in muscle ageing. The aim of this network is to bring together researchers, businesses and the people and organisations that benefit from research, from many areas, offering new insights into muscle health and an understanding of the pathways leading to muscle ageing. Specifically we will:Develop a national network of researchers across a wide range of disciplines to focused on muscle resilience and ageing throughout life and across scales.Increase the understanding of the mechanisms influencing muscle ageing and the variability between individuals. Provide secondments and training for early career scientists and technical staff.Work with policy makers, health care practitioners, industry and patient groups to translate our insights into improved health benefits, developing new preventative and treatment strategiesThe outcomes of our network activities will be wide ranging, spanning from new scientific insights, the application of new technologies, interdisciplinary grant proposals, to training and exchange of knowledge across disciplines, to helping make policy at the national level, with the unified aim of relieving the major societal problems connected to muscle ageing and loss of mobility.