[Aging and homeostasis. Aging of skeletal muscle.]

With aging, insulin resistance and sarcopenia in skeletal muscle are induced, resulting in skeletal muscle aging. It is suggested that the former is one of the reasons that mitochondrial function decreases with aging, and the latter is due to endocrinologic dysfunction, neurological mechanism, nutritional deficiency and inactivity such as waste are complicatedly involved. Also, as sarcopenia progresses, the amount of physical activity further decreases, and it is also assumed that insulin resistance and sarcopenia progress synergistically. It is suggested that exercise enhances the activity and amount of mitochondria and works preventively against insulin resistance in skeletal muscle accompanying aging and it also works for prevention and amelioration of sarcopenia. On the other hand, as for nutritional supplementation, it has been reported that it works for improving sarcopenia by amino acid ingestion.