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Review
. 2019 Feb 1;10(1):157-173.
doi: 10.14336/AD.2018.0325. eCollection 2019 Feb.

Prospective Views for Whey Protein and/or Resistance Training Against Age-related Sarcopenia

Yuxiao Liao  1   2 , Zhao Peng  1   2 , Liangkai Chen  1   2 , Yan Zhang  1   2 , Qian Cheng  1   2 , Andreas K Nüssler  3 , Wei Bao  4 , Liegang Liu  1   2 , Wei Yang  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Prospective Views for Whey Protein and/or Resistance Training Against Age-related Sarcopenia

Yuxiao Liao et al. Aging Dis. .

Abstract

Skeletal muscle aging is characterized by decline in skeletal muscle mass and function along with growing age, which consequently leads to age-related sarcopenia, if without any preventive timely treatment. Moreover, age-related sarcopenia in elder people would contribute to falls and fractures, disability, poor quality of life, increased use of hospital services and even mortality. Whey protein (WP) and/or resistance training (RT) has shown promise in preventing and treating age-related sarcopenia. It seems that sex hormones could be potential contributors for gender differences in skeletal muscle and age-related sarcopenia. In addition, skeletal muscle and the development of sarcopenia are influenced by gut microbiota, which in turn is affected by WP or RT. Gut microbiota may be a key factor for WP and/or RT against age-related sarcopenia. Therefore, focusing on sex hormones and gut microbiota may do great help for preventing, treating and better understanding age-related sarcopenia.

Keywords: age-related sarcopenia; gender differences; gut microbiota; resistance training; sex hormones; whey protein.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations of interest No conflicts of interest

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Gut microbiota and muscle aging. Age-related lifestyles, including decreased physical function, nutrition intake and living status, would induced the changes of gut microbiota. The increased Bifidobacteria, Christensenellaceae, and Akkermansia were identified as aging-core-microbiota. The substantial microbiome change in aging may affect changes in gut physiology such as reduced gut motility, reduced mucus, barrier dysfunction, and dysbiosis, which can further mediate the translocation of bacterial toxins and muscle aging. “+” means increased, “-” means decreased.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mechanism of whey protein/resistance training to induce muscle protein synthesis. Amino acids (AAs)/resistance training, together with insulin, promote the muscle protein synthesis (MPS) by affecting the components of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, as described in detail in the text. “?”: whether or not AAs directly promote activation of mTOR remains unknown; ?: phosphorylate; PKB: protein kinase B; GSK3: glycogen synthase kinase 3; 4E-BP1: eIF4E-binding protein 1; p70S6k: 70 kDa ribosomal protein S6 protein kinase; elF2B/4E/4G: eukaryotic initiation factor 2B/4E/4G.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Schematic diagram of paper structure. Whey protein/resistance training indeed contributed to age-related sarcopenia in elder people. Besides, it seems that sex hormones could be a potential contributor to muscle health based on the discussion of gender differences in skeletal muscle and sarcopenia. Furthermore, we proposed that gut microbiota may be a key factor in the combination of whey protein and resistance training against age-related sarcopenia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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