Aging of Human Muscles

Irina Conboy, from the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues have identified a critical biochemical pathway linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating it, the researchers were able to restore the muscle’s ability to repair and rebuild itself, offering hope for injury repair and antiaging techniques in the future.

The team studied samples of muscle tissue from nearly 30 old and young healthy men who participated in an exercise physiology study and determined that the ability of adult stem cells to repair and replace damaged muscle tissue is governed by the molecular signals they get from surrounding muscle tissue, and that those signals change with age in ways that preclude productive tissue repair.

The team concludes that the “aging of human muscle maintenance and repair can be reversed by youthful calibration of specific molecular pathways.” They are hopeful: “This provides promising new targets for forestalling the debilitating muscle atrophy that accompanies aging and perhaps other tissue degenerative disorders as well.”

Balance of Dietary Protein Key to Longer Life

While research has proven that dietary restriction extends healthy life span in an array of organisms, Richard C. Grandison, from University College London, and colleagues have found that a balance of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, is essential for reducing disease while increasing longevity.

Employing a fruit-fly model, the researchers discovered the organism’s longevity was affected by the types and amounts of amino acids taken in, with the amount of other nutrients having little effect. The results were so dramatic that the team concludes: “In other organisms, including mammals, it may be possible to obtain the benefits to lifespan of dietary restriction… through a suitable balance of nutrients in the diet.”

—Dr. Bob Goldman
www.WorldHealth.net

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