Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013:2013:791679.
doi: 10.1155/2013/791679. Epub 2013 Mar 13.

Sarcopenia, a neurogenic syndrome?

Ping Kwan  1
Affiliations

Sarcopenia, a neurogenic syndrome?

Ping Kwan. J Aging Res. 2013.

Erratum in

Abstract

Sarcopenia is an aging-associated condition, which is currently characterized by the loss of muscle mass and muscle strength. However, there is no consensus regarding its characterization hitherto. As the world older adult population is on the rise, the impact of sarcopenia becomes greater. Due to the lack of effective treatments, sarcopenia is still a persisting problem among the global older adults and should not be overlooked. As a result, it is vital to investigate deeper into the mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of sarcopenia in order to develop more effective therapeutic interventions and to inscribe a more uniform characterization. The etiology of sarcopenia is currently found to be multifactorial, and most of the pharmacological researches are focused on the muscular factors in aging. Although the complete mechanism underlying the development of sarcopenia is still waiting to be elucidated, we propose in this article that the primary trigger of sarcopenia may be neurogenic in origin based on the intimate relationship between the nervous and muscular system, namely, the motor neuron and its underlying muscle fibers. Both of them are affected by the cellular environment and their physiological activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of the neuromuscular mechanism and its relationship with the commonly accepted etiological factors of sarcopenia. The relationships between each of these factors are interlaced in a complex fashion. Black solid lines = positive regulators/reinforcements; black dash lines = positive regulators from the muscular system; red solid lines = negative regulators; blue solid lines = regulation by the circulation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationship between the nervous system and the muscular system. (1) CNTF is released from the peripheral nerves and is one of the vital trophic factors for both the motor neuron and the myocytes. This growth factor is abundantly synthesized by Schwann cells. (2) MGF is locally released from the muscles and mainly activates satellite cells proliferation. (3) Some trophic factors (TrkB and myogenin) are innervation dependent. (4) Electrical impulse pattern modulates the muscle contractile properties and fiber-type profile.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rosenberg IH. Sarcopenia: origins and clinical relevance. Journal of Nutrition. 1997;127(5):990–991. - PubMed
    1. Lee CE, McArdle A, Griffiths RD. The role of hormones, cytokines and heat shock proteins during age-related muscle loss. Clinical Nutrition. 2007;26(5):524–534. - PubMed
    1. Van Kan GA. Epidemiology and consequences of sarcopenia. Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. 2009;13(8):708–712. - PubMed
    1. Visser M, Schaap LA. Consequences of sarcopenia. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine. 2011;27(3):387–399. - PubMed
    1. Tan LJ, Liu SL, Lei SF, Papasian CJ, Deng HW. Molecular genetic studies of gene identification for sarcopenia. Human Genetics. 2011;131(1):1–31. - PubMed