Cited by 111Muscle metabolism and nutritionNutrition and Health in AgingMuscle Physiology and Disorders

Skeletal muscle protein balance and metabolism in the elderly

Open access
S. Fry, Christopher, B. Rasmussen, Blake·2011·Current Aging Sciencee

Abstract

The loss of lean muscle mass occurring with advancing age is termed sarcopenia. This condition often leads to a concomitant loss of strength, increased frailty and risk of falls and an overall loss of functional independence in the elderly. Muscle protein metabolism is a dynamic process characterized by the balance between the synthesis and breakdown of muscle proteins. A disturbance of this equilibrium can lead to the loss of muscle mass, and a perturbation of muscle protein turnover with aging has been proposed to play a role in the development of sarcopenia. However, basal muscle protein synthesis and breakdown rates do not differ between young and old adults, which has led to the hypothesis that older adults are resistant to anabolic stimuli. In support of this hypothesis, older adults have either no response or a blunted response to nutrients, insulin and resistance exercise, and this anabolic resistance is likely a key factor in the loss of skeletal muscle mass with aging. Recent studies have investigated potential interventions to overcome this anabolic resistance. In particular, combining resistance exercise with essential amino acid supplementation restores the muscle protein anabolic response in older men. The novel rehabilitation technique of performing light resistance exercise during blood flow restriction was also successful in overcoming the anabolic resistance to exercise. Future research is needed to determine whether these novel interventions will be successful in preventing sarcopenia and improving muscle strength and function in older adults.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2174/1874609811104030260

Cites

136 of 136 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The primary defect in age-related muscle wasting resides within the structural architecture of the muscle fiber, not chronic systemic inflammation or insulin resistance.

    “contemporary human biopsy data confirm that the primary defect resides deep within the structural architecture of the muscle fiber [102,103].”

    From Ribosome Biogenesis as a Putative Bottleneck to Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: Mechanisms, Human Evidence, and Practical Modulators (2026) · cites this paper as [103]

    The Introduction describes structural changes in aging muscle fibers, but does not identify them as the primary defect. The Conclusions (page not supplied) instead emphasize resistance to anabolic stimuli, including insulin, as important to age-related muscle loss; the Aging and Nutrient Ingestion section also reports a blunted response to insulin with aging. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [137]Rasmussen BB Fujita S Wolfe RR Mittendorfer B Roy M Rowe VL Insulin resistance of muscle protein metabolism in aging FASEB J 2006 20 2 768 71 16464955 PMC2804965

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
S. Fry, C., & B. Rasmussen, B.
Venue
Current Aging Sciencee
Published
2011-12-01
Volume
4
Issue
3
Pages
260-268
ISSN
1874-6098 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2042172969
Cited by
111
References
136
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
FWCI
2.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Current Aging Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000071)
  • National Institute on Aging (P30AG024832)
  • National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R01AR049877)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR029876)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32-HD-07539, T32HD007539)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Nutrition and Health in Aging
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Muscle Physiology and Disorders
Keywords
sarcopenia, muscle protein balance, muscle protein synthesis, muscle protein degradation, anabolic resistance, aging, resistance training, essential amino acid supplementation, blood flow restriction, frailty, muscle strength, older adults
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Amino Acids, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Contraction, Muscle Proteins, Nutritional Status, Muscle, Skeletal, Dietary Supplements, Resistance Training, Sarcopenia

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review