Scientists discover what makes muscles age

BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. and Danish scientists say they've identified critical biochemical pathways that are linked to the aging of human muscle.

The researchers said by manipulating those pathways, they were able to restore old human muscle's ability to repair and rebuild itself.

"Our study shows that the ability of old human muscle to be maintained and repaired by muscle stem cells can be restored to youthful vigor given the right mix of biochemical signals," said University of California-Berkeley Professor Irina Conboy, who led the study. "This provides promising new targets for forestalling the debilitating muscle atrophy that accompanies aging, and perhaps other tissue degenerative disorders as well."

The research that included Michael Kjaer, Charlotte Suetta and Abigail Mackey at the University of Copenhagen; Per Aagaard at the University of Southern Denmark; and Morgan Carlson and Michael Conboy at UC-Berkeley is reported in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.