Apoptosis in skeletal muscle with aging

Sarcopenia may be partly due to a loss in total fiber number by apoptosis. We have investigated age-related alterations in the mitochondria-mediated pathway leading to apoptosis in the gastrocnemius muscle from 6-mo-old and 24-mo-old male Fisher 344 rats. Apoptosis (mono- and oligonucleosome fragmentation) in the gastrocnemius muscle was increased by 50% in the old rats compared with the adult animals. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between cytosolic cytochrome c and caspase-3 activity, although neither cytochrome c nor caspase-3 activity increased significantly with age. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between caspase-3 activity and mono- and oligonucleosome fragmentation in the old rats only. Mitochondrial Bcl-2 and Bax were not altered with age. In vitro experiments demonstrated that activation of the caspase cascade in skeletal muscle might be limited by procaspase-9 activation. This is the first study to explore the role of apoptosis in sarcopenia and suggests that subtle changes in apoptosis are involved.