AGEIST: Muscle study

The challenge

As global life expectancy continues to rise, many countries are becoming aged societies where the percentage of older populations are increasing. As chronic conditions are associated with age many people may be living longer but with poor health. Living with conditions such as type 2 diabetes and CVD lead to poor quality of life and high social and economic burden. These conditions and ageing are also associated with low muscle mass and high fat mass and may be key to reducing disease risk and improving quality of life. As lifestyle plays a key role at managing body composition and disease risk, it is imperative that we uncover the mechanisms at play linking disease, body composition and lifestyle to optimise preventative measures and treatments that are sustainable. Therefore the aim of this project is to understand the impact of ageing on body composition and muscle strength measures and their association with glucose metabolism and signalling mechanisms.

The approach

• Recruitment of older and young adults
• Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements
• Body Composition via Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA)
• Baseline/fasting blood sampling for glucose, insulin, steroid hormones, lipidomics and serum for cell culture.
• Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
• Dietary intake (24hr recall and FFQ)
• Muscle performance and strength tests.
• Seven-day physical activity measures.
• Skeletal Muscle cells were cultured with young and old serum to determine if the endocrine system influence insulin signalling.

The impact

Project is currently ongoing but may lead to:

• Greater understanding of causes of insulin resistance associated with ageing
• Targeted therapeutics
• Development of cell culture model