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Ageing leads to numerous physiological changes in muscle, fat and bone tissue. One such geriatric syndrome is sarcopenia, which is the progressive and generalised loss of muscle mass and function with advancing age 1. With increased age, skeletal muscle fibre size and number decreases linearly at a rate of 3-5% per decade, accelerating up to 30-40% after the fifth decade of life 2. Reduced strength, aerobic capacity and impaired functional capacity are resultant effects leading to adverse outcomes such Abstract Objective: We aim to determine the association of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and dickkopft-1 (DKK-1) as potential biomarkers that may predict changes in body composition and physical performance in healthy older adults from Singapore. Methods: Two-hundred community-dwelling older adults (mean age: 67.9 years; 68.5% females) were classified into elevated versus non-elevated groups based on quintile cutoffs of MCP-1 and DKK-1 levels (156.02 pg/mL and 606.31 pg/mL, respectively). Multiple linear regression was performed to examine the relationship between MCP-1 and DKK-1 with body composition and physical performance, adjusted for age, gender and ethnicity. Results: MCP-1 was significantly associated with higher fat mass, fat mass index, percentage body fat, waist circumference and trunk-limb ratio for fat mass (all p<0.01), and repeated chair stand (p=0.004). DKK-1 was not associated with body composition and physical performance measures. Utilising the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 criteria, there were 39 (19.5%) sarcopenia and 161 (80.5%) non-sarcopenia participants respectively, with MCP-1 levels significantly higher in sarcopenia compared with non-sarcopenia (p=0.046), but not for DKK-1 (p=0.525). Conclusions: Elevated MCP-1 are associated with changes in fat composition, physical performance and sarcopenia, suggesting its usefulness in identifying at-risk group with sarcopenic obesity.

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