Research For Muscle Mass Loss

On February 19, 2014, Arstechnica published an article called “Researchers ID Genetic Switch That Controls Muscle Repair System.” Scientists are doing research to find a cure for the loss of muscle mass and strength. The condition for loss of muscle mass and strength is called Sarcopenia. This is the reason why elders go loss in stamina and have difficulty walking. Scientist describes the mechanism of this disease. Certain cells, known as adult stem cells, maintain and repair organs in the body. These cells have two states, the resting state and the active state. These cells divide only when tissue repair is required. When the adult stem cells stop functioning, the organ’s repair system also stops. This normally occurs with aging. Diseases such as Sarcopenia arise as a result.
There is research is being done at Pompeu Fabra University, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, and CNIC in Spain. Researchers studied the active stem cells in mice. They noticed that the cells in the older mice go through irreversible changes that make them exit the resting state. This resulted in the older mice not being able to “self-renew” when needed.  The younger mice did not undergo that change.  Researchers found that the cells undergo these changes because of a key gene that controls the senescence known as p16INK4a. When this gene was blocked, the old cells responded to tissue injury and replenished the cell population. Researchers are hoping to selectively silence the p16INK4a. As a result the discovery will lead to a treatment that will restart the native tissue repair system in old cells.

This article was very informative. I believe that continuing the research will help lead to treatments that will help with the effects of aging. Discovering the key to the loss of muscle condition is a good start. I believe that discovering a treatment will be possible but it won’t be easy. For example, there is high risk that the treatment may be a carcinogen.