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Single skeletal muscle fiber mechanical properties: a muscle quality biomarker of human aging

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Abstract

Skeletal muscle strength, mass, and function should be carefully monitored for signs of decline with advanced adult age. An understanding of the pathophysiology and severity of sarcopenia can be improved with the exploration of changes in muscle fiber properties. Furthermore, although functional decline with increase age is a well-known phenomenon, the mechanisms underlying this decline, and the features that characterize it, are complex and variable. The age-related decline of muscle function is a result of not only a decrease of muscle mass but also a decline in the intrinsic properties of muscle fibers that are independent of size. We believe it is important to understand changes in muscle quality (force adjusted for size), and not to focus solely on muscle mass, because muscle quality is closely related to measurements of function and could potentially predict clinical outcomes such as morbidity, disability, and mortality. Neurological and metabolic mechanisms contribute to muscle quality, but the intrinsic properties of muscle cells are central to the maintenance of force-generating capacity. Muscle quality can be evaluated with the assessment of morphological, physiological, and mechanical properties in single permeabilized or skinned fibers. This approach excludes the influence of the nervous system, tendons, and the extracellular matrix. In this review, we summarized the changes in active and passive mechanical properties at the single muscle cell level in older skeletal muscles. We argue that intrinsic mechanical changes in human single muscle fibers are useful biomarkers and indicators of muscle quality.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 800-20200179). WRF’s research is partially funded by Grant S21 MD001830-04, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, United States. The content of this report is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Funding

This work was funded by National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant no. 800-20200179); Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (Grant no. S21 MD001830-04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

    Jae-Young Lim

  2. Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, PR, USA

    Walter R. Frontera

  3. Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, PO Box 365067, San Juan, PR, 00936-5067, USA

    Walter R. Frontera

  4. Institute on Aging, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Jae-Young Lim

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Conceptualization, WF; methodology, JYL; data curation, JYL and WF; writing original draft, JYL; writing, review and editing, JYL, WF.

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Correspondence to Walter R. Frontera.

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Lim, JY., Frontera, W.R. Single skeletal muscle fiber mechanical properties: a muscle quality biomarker of human aging. Eur J Appl Physiol 122, 1383–1395 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-04924-4

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