ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Endocrinology of Aging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1592112
Associations of Circulating Apolipoprotein J and Myostatin with Sarcopenia in Older Adults with and without Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
Inha Jung1
Da-Hye Shin1Hyun Joo Cho1So Young Park1Da Young Lee1
Ji Hee Yu1
Nan Hee Kim1Minjin Lee2
Young-Bum Kim2*
Ji A Seo1*- 1Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a known risk factor for sarcopenia. Recently, the hepatokine apolipoprotein J (ApoJ) and myostatin (MSTN) have been implicated in muscle glucose metabolism.We investigated the association between serum levels of ApoJ and MSTN and the presence of sarcopenia in older adults with and without DM. This study enrolled 130 community-dwelling participants aged 65-92 years. The serum ApoJ and MSTN levels were measured using ELISA.Sarcopenia was defined as low appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI) with low handgrip strength (HS) and/or poor physical performance (PP). The prevalence of sarcopenia was found to be 17.7%.Participants with sarcopenia had higher ApoJ levels than those without sarcopenia (p=0.022). Age-and sex-adjusted serum ApoJ levels did not differ according to DM status; however, MSTN levels were lower in participants with DM (p=0.012). Adjusted MSTN levels were positively associated with ASMI, HS, and PP. Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that the ApoJ level was independently associated with sarcopenia (odds ratio [OR]=1.027, p=0.006) and severe sarcopenia (OR=1.041, p=0.027). However, the MSTN level was inversely associated with severe sarcopenia (OR=0.98, p=0.025). When the participants were categorized into four groups based on the median ApoJ and MSTN values, the highest prevalence of sarcopenia (26.7%) was observed in the high ApoJ/low MSTN group. Interestingly, the lowest prevalence (0%) was found in the low ApoJ/high MSTN group. Our data show that elevated ApoJ and reduced MSTN levels are linked to sarcopenia in older adults. These biomarkers may play opposing roles in sarcopenia pathophysiology and could serve as predictive indicators.
Keywords: IR, insulin resistance, DM, diabetes mellitus, ApoJ, apolipoprotein J, MSTN, myostatin, ASM, appendicular skeletal muscle mass, HS, handgrip strength, PP, physical performance, OR, odds ratio
Received: 13 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jung, Shin, Cho, Park, Lee, Yu, Kim, Lee, Kim and Seo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Young-Bum Kim, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, Massachusetts, United States
Ji A Seo, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan-si, Republic of Korea
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