The proteomics of ageing

Proteomics provides an extremely powerful tool for the study of variations in protein expression between individuals, different disease states and different conditions. One of the major challenges facing the medical profession in the forthcoming decades is to understand the changes that occur in individuals as they become older and to attempt to develop means to improve the quality of life for the otherwise healthy ageing population. The present study describes the first phase of such an investigation in which the protein composition of human skeletal muscle samples from young and aged subjects are compared. These results provide the beginning of a Human Aged Skeletal Muscle Profile reference map which is an essential first step to further investigations.