Research Paper Volume 10, Issue 11 pp 3382—3396
Greater loss of mitochondrial function with ageing is associated with earlier onset of sarcopenia in C. elegans
- 1 MRC/ARUK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research, NIHR Nottingham BRC, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
- 2 Lancaster University Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Received: November 17, 2017 Accepted: November 15, 2018 Published: November 19, 2018
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101654How to Cite
Copyright: Gaffney et al. This is an openâaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Sarcopenia, the age-related decline of muscle, is a significant and growing public health burden. C. elegans, a model organism for investigating the mechanisms of ageing, also displays sarcopenia, but the underlying mechanism(s) remain elusive. Here, we use C. elegans natural scaling of lifespan in response to temperature to examine the relationship between mitochondrial content, mitochondrial function, and sarcopenia. Mitochondrial content and maximal mitochondrial ATP production rates (MAPR) display an inverse relationship to lifespan, while onset of MAPR decline displays a direct relationship. Muscle mitochondrial structure, sarcomere structure, and movement decline also display a direct relationship with longevity. Notably, the decline in mitochondrial network structure occurs earlier than sarcomere decline, and correlates more strongly with loss of movement, and scales with lifespan. These results suggest that mitochondrial function is critical in the ageing process and more robustly explains the onset and progression of sarcopenia than loss of sarcomere structure.