Muscle mass, quality, and the menopause: sex-specific strategies to mitigate sarcopenia in aging populations

肌肉质量、质量和更年期：缓解老龄化人群肌肉减少症的针对性别的策略

• 批准号: MR/Y010310/1
• 负责人: Matthew Brook
• 金额: $ 42.31万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY010310%2F1
• 关键词: Muscle; mass; quality; menopause; sex

As we grow older, our muscles become smaller and weaker (sarcopenia), which can make it more difficult to complete daily activities and can increase our reliance on healthcare systems. The UK has a growing ageing population, and, therefore, sarcopenia represents a major healthcare concern, (for example, its estimated cost to the UK healthcare system in 2016 was £2.5 billion). There is an urgent need to develop strategies to prevent sarcopenia. However, these strategies need to be targeted, with evidence suggesting that older men and women develop sarcopenia differently. For instance, sarcopenia develops earlier in women, resulting in greater levels of physical disability compared with men. The underlying sex differences with ageing are unclear, yet the earlier prevalence of sarcopenia in women coincides with the menopause. The menopause is a change in the sex hormone environment that is a part of normal female ageing and is associated with changes in body composition including muscle loss and increased body fat. This increase in body fat can become located within muscle, further accelerating the loss of muscle strength and poor health. There is a lack of understanding of how these changes in body composition occur. However, for muscle to decrease in size, there must be an imbalance between how quickly we remove muscle proteins and how quickly we make new muscle proteins. We have recently developed advanced biochemistry techniques to measure how quickly we make and remove muscle proteins. By applying these techniques to pre- and post-menopausal women, we will be able to better understand muscle protein balance during ageing for the first time. By combining these techniques with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we will develop new methods to locate where, and how quickly, new fat is deposited in the body. Combined, these approaches will provide vital insights on how best to target future interventions against sarcopenia in women. Resistance exercise therapy (RET) currently offers the most effective strategy to promote muscle mass and strength in ageing. However, responses to resistance exercise are blunted in older women compared to younger women. We will measure whether the menopause has an impact on how quickly new muscle proteins are made in response to exercise, and, using our MRI imaging techniques, we will monitor whether RET alters the rate of fat deposition in the body. Together, these measures will determine the effectiveness of RET at slowing sarcopenia and improving body composition in post-menopausal women. Using our results, we will create evidence-based resources and information, and implement these recommendations into menopause intervention programmes through existing connections with Sport England Active Partnerships (Active Together in Leicestershire and Sport Notts), Sports Exercise Medicine departments at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester and the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine in Loughborough, as well as the national "Moving Medicine" website for doctors, the Exercise Medicine clinic at Leicester General Hospital, and menopause clinics in Leicester and Nottingham.

随着年龄的增长，我们的肌肉变得越来越小，越来越弱（肌肉减少症），这会使我们更难以完成日常活动，并增加我们对医疗保健系统的依赖。英国人口老龄化日益严重，因此，肌肉减少症是一个主要的医疗保健问题（例如，2016年英国医疗保健系统的估计成本为25亿英镑）。迫切需要制定预防肌肉减少症的策略。然而，这些策略需要有针对性，有证据表明老年男性和女性的肌肉减少症发展不同。例如，与男性相比，女性的肌肉减少症发展得更早，导致身体残疾的程度更高。随着年龄的增长，潜在的性别差异尚不清楚，但女性肌肉减少症的早期患病率与绝经期一致。更年期是性激素环境的变化，是正常女性衰老的一部分，与身体成分的变化有关，包括肌肉损失和身体脂肪增加。这种身体脂肪的增加可以位于肌肉内，进一步加速肌肉力量的丧失和健康状况的恶化。人们对身体成分的这些变化是如何发生的缺乏了解。然而，对于肌肉的大小减少，我们去除肌肉蛋白质的速度和我们制造新肌肉蛋白质的速度之间必须存在不平衡。我们最近开发了先进的生物化学技术来测量我们制造和去除肌肉蛋白质的速度。通过将这些技术应用于绝经前后的女性，我们将能够首次更好地了解衰老过程中的肌肉蛋白质平衡。通过将这些技术与磁共振成像（MRI）相结合，我们将开发新的方法来定位新脂肪在体内沉积的位置和速度。结合起来，这些方法将提供关于如何最好地针对女性肌肉减少症的未来干预措施的重要见解。阻力运动疗法（RET）目前提供了最有效的策略，以促进肌肉质量和力量老化。然而，与年轻女性相比，老年女性对阻力运动的反应迟钝。我们将测量更年期是否会影响新的肌肉蛋白质在运动中产生的速度，并且，使用我们的MRI成像技术，我们将监测RET是否会改变体内脂肪沉积的速度。总之，这些措施将确定RET在减缓绝经后妇女肌肉减少症和改善身体成分方面的有效性。利用我们的研究结果，我们将创建以证据为基础的资源和信息，并通过与英格兰体育积极伙伴关系的现有联系，将这些建议纳入更年期干预计划。（活跃在莱斯特郡和体育诺茨一起），诺丁汉和莱斯特大学的运动运动医学系以及拉夫堡的国家运动和运动医学中心，以及面向医生的国家“移动医学”网站、莱斯特总医院的运动医学诊所、莱斯特和诺丁汉的更年期诊所。