ROCHESTER, Minn. — Aug. 20, 2013 — Mayo Clinic has been awarded a $3 million grant from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to establish the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for Senescence Research. The grant will support the laboratories' mission of exploring how age-related diseases and disorders are affected by aging cells and how eliminating these senescent cells can improve and extend life span. Jan van Deursen, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Mayo Clinic and recipient of the Vita Valley Professorship in Cellular Senescence, will serve as laboratory director.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 9, 2012. Physical and mental decline are common side effects of hospital stays, particularly among older patients. That can hold true even if someone is hospitalized for just a day or two for a common procedure such as knee replacement surgery. There are steps patients can take to regain strength, stamina and mental sharpness after time in the hospital, say Mayo Clinic aging and fitness experts Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., and Michael Joyner, M.D., who are highlighting the issue as part of National Physical Therapy Month.
VIDEO ALERT: For video of Dr. LeBrasseur and Dr. Joyner, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.
One of the most important moves a hospitalized patient can make is to simply get moving again as quickly as possible, to whatever extent is possible, Dr. LeBrasseur says. As people age, it takes less and less to push them off track, and being incredibly inactive during a hospital stay further stresses the body and can induce another degree of disability and functional decline, he says. "This kind of long-held belief or dogma that 'rest is best' is clearly not the right answer. We know from a number of different studies in different settings that exercise plays a very active role in the recovery process," says Dr. LeBrasseur, who is with Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and the Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging. "Also, just simple forms of activity are very important." Physical deconditioning during or after a hospital stay or illness isn't something that only happens to frail patients, says Dr. Joyner, an anesthesiologist and physiologist. Cognitive issues can also emerge. Anesthesia and pain-relieving drugs can sometimes cause confusion or delirium or make existing cognitive problems worse, Dr. Joyner says. "It can happen to anyone and it can happen quickly. Older people are at higher risk because they typically start at a lower baseline, so there is less reserve," Dr. Joyner says. "Each person and each case is different. However, the evidence for all sorts of conditions is that more aggressive rehabilitation strategies typically work far better than people realize."ROCHESTER, Minn. — June 20, 2012. Researchers have long been aware that the progressive loss of muscle mass and bone density is a natural part of aging. But little work has investigated how muscle tissue affects the inner and outer layers of bone microstructure. A Mayo Clinic study looked at skeletal muscle mass and bone health across the life span and discovered distinct differences in how muscle affects the two layers of bone in men and women. The findings are published in the Journal of Bone & Mineral Research.
VIDEO ALERT: Video resources available on Mayo Clinic's YouTube Channel.
"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the highly integrated nature of skeletal muscle and bone, and it also provides new insights into potential biomarkers that reflect the health of the musculoskeletal system," says lead author Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic. Researchers reviewed records from a long-standing Mayo Clinic study of bone health involving 272 women and 317 men ages 20 to 97. They examined the association of skeletal muscle mass (relative to participants' height) with bone architecture and strength, using several high-resolution imaging technologies that distinguish the outer cortical layer of bone from the inner trabecular layer. The study found that muscle mass is associated with bone strength at particular places in the body. In women, muscle mass was strongly connected to cortical health at load-bearing locations such as the hip, lumbar spine and tibia. Researchers also found that muscle mass was associated with the microarchitecture of trabecular bone in women's forearms, a non-load-bearing site, at higher risk of fracture following menopause. The higher the level of the circulating protein, IGFBP-2, the lower relative muscle mass overall, they discovered. "We found IGFBP-2, which has already been linked to osteoporotic fractures in men, is a negative biomarker of muscle mass in both sexes," Dr. LeBrasseur says. "This finding could potentially be used to determine people who are at a particular risk for falls and associated fractures." The subject of muscle and bone health is vital, especially for the elderly. Weakened muscle can lead to bone-breaking accidents that result in loss of independence and even death. In the context of health care costs, the adverse health effects of frailty reach up to $18.5 billion annually.Notes that exercise remains the 'silver bullet' to maintain muscle mass in the aging ROCHESTER, Minn. — The progressive loss of skeletal muscle during aging, known as sarcopenia, underlies limitations in physical function and mobility, which in turn lead to falls, loss of independence, institutionalization and even death. Mayo Clinic researcher Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., of Mayo Clinic's Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, presented an update on promising strategies and therapies to restore skeletal muscle health in the face of aging and disease during a symposium at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Annual Conference. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video of Dr. LeBrasseur is available for download from the Mayo Clinic News Network. What is the significance of muscle for overall health? Dr. LeBrasseur: "We achieve peak muscle mass by our early 40s, and have a progressive deterioration from that point on, resulting in as much as a 50 percent loss by the time we are in our 80s or 90s. Most of us will lose approximately 30 percent over our lifetime. Muscle is a fundamental organ as we age, helping to maintain physical function, including the ability to walk, climb stairs, get out of a chair, or lift objects. These are things that determine our autonomy and independence as we age. "Muscle is also critically important for metabolism in the context oftype 2 diabetes, because it is the primary site where we store sugars and a primary determinant of our metabolic rate. It is also able to improve our resiliency to various stressors as we age, both physical and psychological, and as a result, fends off frailty. Interestingly, we and others are increasingly looking at muscle as an endocrine organ, and examining how it interacts with other organs, such as the brain. Therefore, by maintaining muscle health as we age, we can have a better overall quality of life." What types of therapies are available to mitigate muscle loss? Dr. LeBrasseur: "We are looking at promising therapies, including inhibiting the protein myostatin for those who require therapeutic intervention. Muscles naturally produce myostatin and its role is to prevent the growth of and cause the degradation of muscle. By administering a myostatin blocker, we and other researchers have demonstrated robust increases in muscle mass in mice and other animals. Our goal is to find ways to combine pharmacological and behavioral strategies to enhance muscle health to improve musculoskeletal function and metabolism, and reduce frailty as people age."