Androgens, Myostatin, and Sarcopenia in Older Women

描述（由申请人提供）：Anne Cappola博士，曾接受过 马萨诸塞州总医院和约翰霍普金斯医院的内分泌科 医院，最近完成了一个Sc.M.约翰·霍普金斯大学流行病学系 公共卫生学院和约翰霍普金斯老龄化中心的奖学金 与健康2001年4月，Cappola博士加入了该大学的教师队伍 马里兰大学医学和流行病学助理教授。她有 来自艾伦·舒尔迪纳博士的强大导师，他是一位内分泌学家， 琳达弗里德博士，一位老年病学家和流行病学家， 她对脆弱的研究他们将为她提供广泛的资源和 刺激跨学科的环境，推出她的独立学术 事业 肌肉减少症，即骨骼肌质量和功能的不自主丧失，是一种 潜在的可修改的条件，有助于脆弱，功能 依赖性，以及老年人的福尔斯。内分泌系统的作用 在肌肉减少症的发展中的作用还知之甚少。的中心目标 本研究旨在明确雄激素和肌肉生长抑制素在肌肉减少症中的作用 通过流行病学和分子数据的检查，在 具体目标1，Cappola博士提议描述 卵巢和肾上腺雄激素和肌肉生长抑制素的随机样本的妇女超过 使用来自心血管健康研究（CHS）的库存血液。 在具体目标2中，她将进行分析，以确定是否降低或 雄激素水平下降和/或肌肉生长抑制素水平升高或升高 在CHS和一组女性中与肌肉减少症独立相关 功能相对较高的女性呢？健康与老龄化研究2在 具体目标3，她将进行一项试点研究的低剂量睾酮， 雄激素缺乏的老年妇女，以评估安全性和有效性， 干预和描绘的分子机制， 使用功能基因组学方法介导肌肉的变化。 博士卡波拉？公司跨学科的培训，强大的导师团队，精心 设计的职业发展计划，支持性的环境，和新颖的 研究计划将给她的经验和工具，她需要发展成为 一位非常成功的独立临床研究者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dr. Anne Cappola, who trained in Endocrinology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, recently completed an Sc.M. in Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health. In April, 2001, Dr. Cappola joined the faculty at the University of Maryland as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. She has strong mentor ship from Dr. Alan Shuldiner, an endocrinologist with expertise in aging, and Dr. Linda Fried, a geriatrician and epidemiologist renowned for her work on frailty. They will provide her with extensive resources and a stimulating interdisciplinary environment to launch her independent academic career. Sarcopenia, the involuntary loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, is a potentially modifiable condition that contributes to frailty, functional dependence, and falls in older individuals. The role of the endocrine system in the development of sarcopenia is poorly understood. The central goal of this proposal is to define the role of androgens and myostatin in sarcopenia in older women through examination of epidemiologic and molecular data. In Specific Aim 1, Dr. Cappola proposes to characterize the distribution of ovarian and adrenal androgens and myostatin in a random sample of women over the age of 65 using banked blood from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). In Specific Aim 2, she will perform analyses to determine whether lower or declining levels of androgens and/or higher or increasing levels of myostatin are independently associated with sarcopenia in CHS and in a cohort of women with relatively high function, the Women?s Health and Aging Study II. In Specific Aim 3, she will perform a pilot study of low-dose testosterone in androgen-deficient older women to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this intervention and to delineate the molecular mechanisms whereby androgens mediate changes in muscle using functional genomics approaches. Dr. Cappola?s interdisciplinary training, strong mentor ship, carefully designed career development program, supportive environment, and novel research plan will give her the experience and tools she needs to develop into a highly successful, independent clinical investigator.