A Review of Sarcopenia Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Future Direction

Abstract

Sarcopenia is a progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. The prevalence of sarcopenia was reported to be up to 29% in older persons in the community healthcare setting. Sarcopenia diagnosis is confirmed by the presence of low muscle mass plus low muscle strength or low physical performance. Sarcopenia management options include non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches. Non-pharmacological approaches include resistance exercise and adequate nutrition. Of the two, resistance exercise is the standard non-pharmacological treatment approach for sarcopenia with significant positive evidence. Some dietary approaches such as adequate intake of protein, vitamin D, antioxidant nutrients, and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid have been shown to have positive effects against sarcopenia. Currently, no specific drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of sarcopenia. However, several agents, including growth hormone, anabolic or androgenic steroids, selective androgenic receptor modulators, protein anabolic agents, appetite stimulants, myostatin inhibitors, activating II receptor drugs, β-receptor blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and troponin activators, are recommended and have been shown to have variable efficacy. Future research should focus on sarcopenia biological pathway and improved diagnostic approaches such as biomarkers for early detection, development of consistently pre-eminent treatment methods for severe sarcopenia patients, and establishing sensitive measures for predicting sarcopenia treatment response.

Patterns of Muscle-Related Risk Factors for Sarcopenia in Older Mexican Women

“…The resulting clusters align with the previous evidence on the sarcopenia components and pathway [ 52 ]. It can be seen that the prevalence of sarcopenia increases as the assigned cluster number progresses.…”

Cytotoxic and Antioxidant Activities of Imine Analogs of Trans-Resveratrol towards Murine Neuronal N2a Cells

“…In addition, as resveratrol has also been shown to induce the differentiation of murine myoblasts C2C12 in myotubes [ 39 ], there is also an interest to further evaluate the ability of aza-stilbenes to act on the differentiation of skeletal muscle cells. This can also have important applications in the context of aging for the treatment of sarcopenia, which is characterized by a decrease of the muscular mass in the elderly [ 40 ].…”

Potential Satellite Cell-Linked Biomarkers in Aging Skeletal Muscle Tissue: Proteomics and Proteogenomics to Monitor Sarcopenia

“…Additionally, there is evidence of a decrease at the central level of the α motor neurons of the spinal ventral gray horn. This loss of α-motor neurons leads to the recruitment of the denervated myocytes by the existing motor units but reaches a muscular work overload that is hardly assumable by the sarcopenic muscle [ 19 ].…”

“…Physical exercise is one of the most widely used measures to delay/modulate the evolution of sarcopenia [ 19 ]. In this sense, proteomic analysis was performed on human muscle biopsies by mass-spectrometry-based proteomic technique before and after the practice of physical exercise.…”