Highlights
- •Sarcopenia is the age-related progressive loss of muscle mass and strength.
- •Oxidative damage of muscle proteins is a major contributory factor to sarcopenia.
- •Uric acid (UA) is a powerful endogenous scavenging antioxidant.
- •Higher UA levels are associated with better muscle function in nonagenarians.
- •Higher UA levels might slow down the progression of sarcopenia in late life.
Abstract
Background
Sarcopenia is the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with advancing
age and plays a pivotal role in the causal pathway leading to frailty, disability
and, eventually, to death among older persons. As oxidative damage of muscle proteins
has been shown to be a relevant contributory factor, in this study we hypothesized
that uric acid (UA), a powerful endogenous antioxidant, might exert a protective effect
on muscle function in the oldest old and we tested our hypothesis in a group of nonagenarians
who participated in the Mugello Study.
Methods
239 subjects, 73 men and 166 women, mean age 92.8 years ± SD 3.1, underwent the assessment of UA serum level and isometric handgrip strength,
a widely used clinical measure of sarcopenia.
Results
Mean UA serum level was 5.69 mg/dL ± SD 1.70 and mean handgrip strength was 15.0 kg ± SD 6.9. After adjusting for relevant confounders, higher UA serum levels remained
independent positive predictors of isometric handgrip strength (β 1.24 ± SE(β) 0.43, p = 0.005).
Conclusion
Our results show that higher UA serum levels are associated with better muscle function
in the oldest old and, accordingly, might slow down the progression of sarcopenia.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 22, 2017
Accepted:
March 18,
2017
Received in revised form:
March 17,
2017
Received:
January 18,
2017
Footnotes
☆Submission declaration: This work has not been published previously, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form. All authors, along with the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, approved its publication.
☆☆Conflict of interest disclosure: All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
