Skeletal muscle is a highly flexible organ and has a remarkable ability to adapt itself in response to multiple stimuli such as contractile activity, hormones, nutritional status and systemic homeostasis. The adaptation process involves alterations in muscle size, fiber-type transformations, contractile ...
Skeletal muscle is a highly flexible organ and has a remarkable ability to adapt itself in response to multiple stimuli such as contractile activity, hormones, nutritional status and systemic homeostasis. The adaptation process involves alterations in muscle size, fiber-type transformations, contractile activity and bioenergetics. Owing to the interface between skeletal muscle and several body organs, this adaptation process reflects in various metabolic, proliferative and degenerative diseases in aging. Consequently, skeletal muscle detriment is a common occurrence in a broad spectrum of age-related diseases ranging from neurodegeneration to cardiac failure and cancer cachexia. Due to a robust association between muscle insufficiency and functional compromise, these diseases often result in a sedentary lifestyle and/or confinement to bed. Various interventional strategies have been introduced to prevent and/or minimize muscle loss in such diseases. However, the search for an effective therapy remains elusive, partly because the molecular mechanisms driving muscle wasting are not fully understood. Recent studies have unravelled several molecular candidates as potential targets for pharmacotherapy in an attempt to boost muscle mass and strength. However, an integrated view of molecular and cellular dynamics in muscle wasting and interventions is paramount for understanding skeletal muscle adaptation.
This Research Topic aims to highlight the molecular and cellular dynamics governing skeletal muscle adaptation in the age-related disease process. We specifically focus on the changes in skeletal muscle during sarcopenia and/or other comorbidities. These include organ failure, metabolic dysfunction, degenerative diseases and cancers. Additionally, we will reflect on exercise, nutrition, pharmacotherapy and other interventions to muscle wasting in aging and comorbidities.
We welcome novel, cutting-edge research that investigates the molecular and cellular alterations in skeletal muscle during the disease process and interventions in aging and other diseases. Our primary emphasis is on understanding skeletal muscle adaptation, maintenance and its interaction with other tissues. The Research Topic welcomes basic and clinical research with primarily a mechanistic approach to understanding skeletal muscle dynamics. Case reports are also encouraged for submission.
Keywords:
Skeletal muscle, Signaling pathways, Muscular homeostasis, Sarcopenia, Organ failure, Cancer cachexia, Muscle atrophy, Proteolysis, Neurodegeneration
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.