The molecular mechanisms underlying sarcopenia are not fully elucidated. However several lines of evidence have connected many different age-related changes to the resulting decrease in muscle mass and function: increases in apoptosis and reactive oxidative species (ROS); decreases in autophagy; modulation of signaling pathways involved in skeletal muscle homeostasis and excitation-contraction (EC) uncoupling. All of these factors appear to contribute to the progression of sarcopenia albeit no single factor can independently account for the aging-related changes occurring in skeletal muscle.
Factors Impacting Skeletal Muscle Structure
Histologically, the age-related loss of muscle mass is characterized by a decrease in muscle fiber size and number with a preferentially loss of type II fibers [15, 16]. Due to the impaired ability of skeletal muscle to remodel, the loss of myofibers can be accompanied by the infiltration of adipose tissue, inflammation and/or fibrotic tissue [17-21]. Other markers of impaired remodeling such as variation of fiber size, increase in centralized nuclei and an increase in atrophic, angulated fibers are often present [22]. Proposed mechanisms for the loss of muscle size and number including increased ROS, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, impaired autophagy and increased apoptosis appear to function synergistically to contribute to the pathogenesis of sarcopenia.
A progressive decline in mitochondria function leads to an increase in the formation of oxidative stress and ROS production. The increase in ROS leads to mtDNA deletions and mutations, macromolecular oxidation, electron transport chain (ETC) dysfunction, cellular senescence and cell death [23-25]. Oxidative damage to proteins may alter their structure and function leading to the formation of aggregates. Oxidized proteins may be ubiquitinated in order to be targeted by the proteosome for degradation. However during aging of skeletal muscle, there is an increase in the accumulation of oxidized proteins, attributed to a decline in the activity of the proteosome [26]. Conversely, recent data report an increase in the number of proteosomes with normal degradative capacity, suggesting enhanced proteosome activity contributes to muscle loss [27]. Therefore, the role of the ubiquitin-proteosome activity in sarcopenia requires further clarification. Nonetheless under normal physiological conditions, the cell undergoes autophagy to protect itself from accumulation of protein aggregates, but there is a decline in the activity and efficiency of autophagy with age. Consequently there is an intracellular accumulation of protein aggregates, impaired autophagy [28], increased apoptosis and oxidative stress [28] associated with impaired energy production due to damaged mitochondria [28-30].
With age, alterations in the expression of autophagy-related genes have been reported. Studies have shown an increase in Beclin-1 and a decrease in LC3, LAMP-2, Bnip-3 and Gabarap1 [28, 31]. These changes lead to impaired autophagy with a decline in its degradation activity causing post-mitotic cells to accumulate biological garbage. Furthermore, the process of autophagy is necessary to maintain skeletal muscle mass. Skeletal muscle specific inhibition of autophagy using mice deficient in Atg7 has resulted in a phenotype similar to sarcopenia: muscle atrophy, loss of force, accumulation of abnormal mitochondria, protein aggregates, oxidative stress and apoptosis [32, 33].
Accelerated apoptosis, as seen in aging, likely also contributes to the loss of myofibers observed in sarcopenia. Apoptosis could be a consequence of the impaired autophagy and abnormal mitochondria. Studies show an increase in mRNA, protein and/or activity levels of many pro-apoptotic markers including the BCL-2 family, caspases, Apaf-1, XIAP and cytochrome c [34, 35]. These increases are accompanied by an increase in apoptotic DNA fragmentation [28, 34] and a compensatory up-regulation of anti-apoptotic factors [35-37]. Due to the multinucleated nature of skeletal muscle, it can undergo individual myonuclear apoptosis or complete cell death. The phenomenon of myonuclear apoptosis supports the nuclear domain hypothesis that states a single nucleus controls a defined cytoplasmic area. Under this hypothesis, the removal of myonuclei is necessary for muscle atrophy to occur [6, 38].
Age-related changes also occur in a number of critical signaling pathways that further promote the process of aging. Although there are several signaling pathways linked to sarcopenia, we focus our discussion on the canonical and non-canonical transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) cascade, Wnt signaling and the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways.
Loss of muscle mass in sarcopenia has been linked to the modulation of the canonical (Smad-dependent) and non-canonical (Smad-independent) TGF-β signaling cascades [3]. An increase in circulating TGF-β1 and phosphorylated Smad3 levels contribute to the formation of connective tissue within the extracellular matrix (ECM). This interferes with the satellite cell niche, creating an environment that inhibits satellite cell activation and proliferation [3, 39], impairs myocyte differentiation [39, 40] and leads to the formation of fibrotic tissue in response to skeletal muscle injury [41]. There are conflicting data concerning the activation of the non-canonical TGF-β mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway; it has been reported to be up-regulated, down-regulated and unchanged in aged skeletal muscle [5, 42, 43]. Furthermore, MAPK has been shown to participate in a variety of functions including muscle regeneration, remodeling, and contractions.
Although the exact role and concentrations of MAPK signaling in sarcopenia requires more research, it has been associated with creating a ‘stress-like’ condition in which aged muscle is constantly exposed when up-regulated [42] and contributing to the impaired regeneration [5].
Wnt signaling has been shown to be involved in satellite cell proliferation and differentiation in skeletal muscle regeneration [44, 45]. It has been suggested that a temporal switch from notch to Wnt signaling occurs during the onset of differentiation [44], suggesting that timing and tissue homeostasis of these signaling pathways are important for efficient regeneration. Therefore impaired regeneration in aged skeletal muscle could be associated with an aging-related increase in the activation of Wnt signaling, evident by increased levels of Axin7 and β-catenin and a decrease in phosphorylated GSK3β in non-injured aged skeletal muscle cells and satellite cells and myogenic progenitor cells upon injury [44, 46]. Furthermore, the sustained activation of Wnt signaling in skeletal muscle is associated with stem cell aging and the transformation of myogenic to fibrotic tissue [46].
IGF-1 is a growth factor whose activation is critical in mediating the growth of skeletal muscle and its levels decrease with age [47]. Several lines of evidence have shown that the local administration of IGF-1 directly into skeletal muscle prevents the age-related loss of muscle mass [48], function [47] and regeneration [48]. Akt is a downstream effector of the IGF-1 pathway. Akt can induce protein synthesis through the phosphorylation and activation of mTOR and inhibit protein degradation through the phosphorylation and inactivation of FoxO3a. mTOR signaling is critical for muscle homeostasis, all stages of regeneration [49-51] and muscle hypertrophy [52-54]. FoxO3a signaling induces the transcriptional activation of atrogenes and autophagy-related genes resulting in protein degradation. Interestingly, there are discrepancies in the expression levels of atrogenes, MuRF-1 and atrogin-1, in sarcopenia [31, 55, 56]; although they have been linked with acute conditions of muscle atrophy [56, 57]. Thus, this pathway likely does not play a primary role in sarcopenia because its modulation depends on sex, age and muscle fiber type [58]. However, it is well documented that the loss of muscle mass during disuse as the result of inactivity and bed rest in young and aged skeletal muscle is associated with a reduction in the Akt/mTOR pathway [59-61]. Notably, sarcopenic muscle lacks the ability to sufficiently recover from disuse-induced atrophy as compared to young muscle [62]. Taken together, the existing data suggest that the IGF-1/Akt/mTOR pathway does not play a primary role in the process of sarcopenia, and that other regulators will need to be identified as possible modulators of sarcopenia.