Genetic aspects of skeletal muscle strength and mass with relevance to sarcopenia

Abstract

Skeletal muscle is a highly heritable quantitative trait, with heritability estimates ranging 30 -85 % for muscle strength and 50 -80 % for lean mass. That strong genetic contribution indicates the possibility of using genetic information to individualize treatments for sarcopenia or even aid in prevention strategies through the use of genetic screening prior to the functional limitations. Though these possibilities provide the rationale for genetic studies of skeletal muscle traits, few genes have been identified that appear to contribute to variation in either skeletal muscle strength or mass phenotypes, and sarcopenia per se is remarkably understudied as a trait in this regard. This review examines the heritability of skeletal muscle traits, findings of linkage and genome-wide association analyses and impact of specific genes and gene-sequence variants on these traits as relevant to sarcopenia. Despite considerable work in the area, the genetic underpinnings of skeletal muscle traits remain largely unknown and the genetic aspects of sarcopenia are even less clear. Large-scale longitudinal clinical studies relying on advanced genome-wide association and other techniques are needed to provide further insights into the genes and gene variants that contribute to skeletal muscle strength and mass, and ultimately to susceptibility to sarcopenia.

Diet and Exercise Are not Associated with Skeletal Muscle Mass and Sarcopenia in Patients with Bladder Cancer

“…1). These findings concur with the published literature, suggesting that genetic variation has an influence on SM traits and that there may be different clinically meaningful thresholds of muscle mass for which function is impaired [25]. Based on our study, age, race, and gender are strong determinants of SM mass and must be accounted for when interventions are planned.…”

“…Second, muscle mass may not be representative of muscle strength and endurance. Last, genetics play an important role in the determination of muscle mass [25], as clearly demonstrated by differences in sex and race. We found that SM decreases with age and is higher in black males, followed by white males, black females, and white females, across all age groups (Fig.…”

Letter to the editor: A genetic-based algorithm for personalized resistance training

“…As presented in Table 1, there are positive and negative findings for some genetic markers but few of these polymorphisms have been replicated. Notably, for the TRHR gene variant, there is only one study supporting the link with lean body mass variation [6, 7] in 1000 US whites after several replication attempts in three different cohorts consisting of in total over 6000 white US and Chinese participants. The Vitamin D receptor BsmI (rs1544410) polymorphism has also been associated with muscle strength in elderly population in three studies but results remain inconclusive [8].…”

Sarkopenie

“…50-80 %) und Muskelkraft (mit ca. 30-85 %) sind zu einem nicht unerheblichen Ausmaß genetisch determiniert [9]; die oben beschriebenen Prozesse betreffen unterschiedliche Individuen in unterschiedlichem Ausmaß.…”