The role of cardiolipin and tafazzin in mediating skeletal muscle growth and wasting.

骨骼肌质量是生长和减少之间的平衡。有些情况（如年龄、肌肉萎缩）是生长和损失不平衡的结果。肌肉生长和损失的平衡的一个贡献者是线粒体，细胞的能量生产者。如果线粒体是健康的，这将为肌肉生长提供必要的能量。如果线粒体不健康，这将影响能量产生，损害肌肉生长，并可能表明肌肉损失。线粒体中的能量产生涉及蛋白质和脂肪之间的关键相互作用。心磷脂是一种特殊的脂肪，它有助于组织在能量生产中重要的蛋白质，只存在于线粒体中。这种脂肪有一种非常独特的结构，这种结构的改变会降低线粒体的功能。有许多酶负责产生心磷脂，这些酶的改变会导致心磷脂的改变和线粒体功能的降低。我们目前还不知道心磷脂在肌肉生长和损失平衡中的作用。通过了解正常肌肉质量平衡中发生的事情，我们可以了解是什么导致了肌肉的生长和损失，并确定是否有替代的治疗策略来防止肌肉损失，例如，衰老和肌肉萎缩。

Skeletal muscle mass is a balance between growth and loss. Some situations (e.g. age, muscle wasting conditions) are a result of an imbalance in growth and loss. A contributor to the balance of muscle growth and loss are mitochondria, the energy producers of the cell. If mitochondria are healthy, this will provide the necessary energy from muscle growth. If mitochondria are unhealthy, this will impact energy production, impair muscle growth, and possibly signal muscle loss. Energy production in mitochondria involves the critical interaction between proteins and fat. A specific fat that helps the organization of proteins important in energy production and is only found in mitochondria is cardiolipin. This fat has a very unique structure and changes to this structure decrease mitochondrial function. There are a number of enzymes responsible for making cardiolipin and changes to these enzymes results in altered cardiolipin and decreased mitochondrial function. We currently don't know the role of cardiolipin in the balance of muscle growth and loss. By understanding what happens in normal muscle mass balance, we can appreciate what contributes to muscle growth and loss and determine if there are alternative treatment strategies to prevent muscle loss seen with, for example, aging and muscle wasting conditions.