As a person ages they lose muscle and strength. The medical term for this is sarcopenia. The sarcopenia process can speed up as one gets older, usually around 75, but it can also happen as early as the mid-60’s.
Dr. Elena Volpi, director of The Sealy Center On Aging at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, has received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Aging for a five-year project that will identify the mechanisms that can accelerate loss of muscle size, strength and physical function in older adults with Type 2 diabetes and those who have been hospitalized.
About one-third of older Americans have Type 2 diabetes, and about one-third of the hospitalizations in the U.S. involve persons older than 65.
Volpi’s project will study how diabetes and inactivity impact muscle growth and loss in older adults. She will study how diabetes and bed rest inactivity change the way amino acids are used to build muscle and how exercise training can mitigate these changes.
“Loss of strength and muscle is an important problem of aging that decreases physical functioning and independence. Research projects such as this one funded by the NIA will help develop knowledge to identify targets for treatments that can delay or slow the progression of functional loss in seniors,” Volpi said.
Co-investigators for the project include UTMB’s L. Maria Belalcazar, Steven Fisher and Blake Rasmussen. The studies will be performed in UTMB’s Institute for Translational Sciences clinical research center with support from the UTMB Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center.