Researchers at King’s College London, Harvard University and
Massachusetts General Hospital have identified for the first time a key factor
responsible for declining muscle repair during ageing, and discovered how to
halt the process in mice with a common drug.
Although an early study, the finding provides clues as to
how muscles lose mass with age, which can result in weakness that affects
mobility and may cause falls.
Published today in the journal Nature, and funded by the
Biotechnology, and Biological Sciences Research Council, Harvard Stem Cell
Institute and National Institutes of Health (US), the study looked at stem
cells found inside muscle - which are responsible for repairing injury - to find
out why the ability of muscles to regenerate declines with age.