Aging and muscle

Recent evidence clearly indicates that muscle weakness associated with aging is not entirely explained by classically postulated atrophy of muscle. In this issue, which focuses on 'Ageing: Biology and Nutrition' we will highlight new findings on how nervous system changes contribute to the aging muscle phenotype. These findings indicate that the ability to communicate neural activity to skeletal muscle is impaired with advancing age, which raises the question of whether many of these age-related neurological changes are mechanistically linked to impaired performance of human skeletal muscle. Collectively, this work suggests that future research should explore the direct link of these 'upstream' neurological adaptions and onset of muscle weakness in elders. In the long term, this new focus might lead to novel strategies to attenuate the age-related loss of muscle strength.