INTERVENTIONS BASED ON THE POSSIBILITY THAT OXIDATIVE STRESS CONTRIBUTES TO SARCOPENIA

Skeletal muscle is a tissue which accounts for a large part of the bod y's total oxygen consumption at rest, due to its large mass and the ma jority of oxygen consumption during vigorous physical activity. Also, skeletal muscle and nervous tissues do not possess the very high repai r capacities that occur in more mitotically active tissues. Accordingl y, oxidative stress may accumulate with age in these tissues and contr ibute to the development of sarcopenia; however, this possibility has not been thoroughly investigated. Although long-term intervention stud ies which test the hypothesis that oxidative stress contributes to sar copenia have not been conducted, recent findings using the caloric res triction (CR) paradigm for studying retarded aging processes indirectl y support this concept. Several research directions appear important t o pursue, including the measurement of free radical production in skel etal muscle at diverse ages, antioxidant supplementation as an interve ntion for retarding the development of sarcopenia, tire use of genetic ally manipulated animal models, and determining the influence of CR on oxidative stress in specific skeletal muscles and individual fibers a nd neurons therein.