Muscle resilience across the life course: from cells to society

世界各地进入老年的人数正在迅速增加，然而，尽管人们活得更长了，但他们并没有变得更健康。英国成年人在健康状况不佳的情况下度过了最后十年，这给健康和社会护理服务带来了沉重的负担。随着年龄的增长，我们身体中的一大变化是肌肉组织的丧失，到80岁时，多达50%的肌肉质量会消失。肌肉是我们身体中的重要组织，因为它对运动、姿势和食物作为能量的利用方式都是至关重要的。衰老过程中肌肉的丧失使日常活动变得更加困难，增加了虚弱和摔倒和受伤的风险，并增加了心脏病、糖尿病和痴呆症等疾病的风险。肌肉丧失是老年人失去独立性的最大原因，所以随着年龄的增长，通过良好的饮食和积极的生活方式来保持我们的肌肉健康(弹性)是很重要的。当肌肉老化时，会发生几种情况：肌肉纤维变得更小、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，会有很大的不同。人与人之间的一些差异可以用一个人继承的基因来解释。剩下的变化很大程度上是由于一个人的生活环境。我们的运动量、我们吃的食物、我们的教育背景以及我们的生活是舒适的还是贫穷的，这些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，研究人员往往专注于问题的一个部分，在他们擅长的领域。我们计划采取一种新的方法，从单独研究单一系统转向联合努力，从微观层面到人口规模，在所有尺度上研究肌肉老化。我们还将与数学、人工智能、社会科学和地理学等其他学科的研究人员合作，寻找解决肌肉老化的重大问题的新方法。这个网络的目的是将研究人员、企业以及从多个领域的研究中受益的个人和组织聚集在一起，为肌肉健康提供新的见解，并了解导致肌肉老化的途径。具体地说，我们将：建立一个跨越广泛学科的全国研究人员网络，专注于肌肉在整个生命周期和不同规模上的弹性和老化。增加对影响肌肉衰老的机制和个体之间的差异性的理解。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、医疗从业者、行业和患者团体合作，将我们的见解转化为改善健康福利，开发新的预防和治疗策略。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，到培训和跨学科的知识交流，再到帮助制定国家层面的政策，统一的目标是缓解与肌肉老化和失去灵活性相关的主要社会问题。

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.