Knowing Both a Great Deal and Too Little About the Mechanisms of Sarcopenia

Today's open access paper is a tour of the better known mechanisms of post-translational modification of proteins, and their relevance to the universal age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, the onset of sarcopenia. It is a good example of the state of knowledge in much of the life sciences, where it is possible to know both a great deal and very little about an important topic such as maintenance of muscle tissue. Thus one can find any number of papers in which specific mechanisms of post-translational modification when applied to specific proteins are investigated in connection to the regulation of muscle growth or maintenance of structures important to muscle strength, such as neuromuscular junctions. But at the end of the day, the forest obscures the trees: there is no unified, detailed understanding as to how it all comes together. Researchers cannot in fine detail describe the progression of muscle aging at the level of cellular biochemistry and show all of the relevant post-translational modifications fit into that picture. Every paper describes a tiny part of the whole. The synthesis of present day knowledge will be a project of the century ahead. We can only point to the known causes of aging, find ways to intervene, and then reinforce those lines of development that prove to be more successful. In the case of sarcopenia, we know that stem cell function is important, and that is is impacted by causes of aging such as mitochondrial dysfunction and...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs