Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that "longevity protein" Klotho restores muscle vitality.

The loss of the ability of skeletal muscle to heal after injury is a major sign of aging, and a new study by the University of Pittsburgh (UPMC) shows that Klotho, the "hot" "longevity protein", is both a culprit and a potential target for restoring bone muscle regeneration defects in old age.
a paper published this week in the journal Nature Communications, entitled "Age-related declines in alpha-Klotho drive progenitor cell mitochondrial and ricked muscle" shows that in young animals, Klotho's expression rises sharply after muscle injury, while in older animals it remains the same.
, by raising Klotho levels in older animals, or mitigating the downstream effects of Klotho's defects, researchers were able to restore muscle regeneration in mice after being injured. "In this experiment, we saved at least some of the regenerative defects in the skeletal muscles of the elderly, and the muscle regeneration capacity of the elderly animals after treatment was comparable to that of young animals, suggesting that Klotho may be a future treatment option in this field," said lead author Fabrisia Ambroio, director of rehabilitation at
UPMC International.
specifically, the researchers suspected that Klotho's decline was associated with functional impairment of mitochondria, based on the assumption that they were giving Klotho genetically defective animals a mitochondrial-targeted drug SS-31 (currently in Phase III clinical trials).
found that the treated animals developed more new muscle tissue at the injured site than the untreated control group, and the restored strength was comparable to that of genetically normal mice.
, the researchers injected Klotho into elderly animals after injury.
found that older mice injected by Klotho produced more muscle mass and recovered better function than saltwater-treated animals.
, normally healthy mice did not benefit from SS-31 after injury.
researchers believe that, clinically, these results may be translated into older people who have suffered muscle damage or have undergone muscle damage surgery, giving them Klotho at the right time to promote muscle regeneration and thus more thorough lying back to their muscle strain.
but Ambroio also stressed that the timing, dosage and pathways of administration need more comprehensive research in the future.
"If Klotho is used alone to stimulate muscles, it is not expected to bring any functional benefits, and we found that mimicking the tempor characteristics seen in young animals seems to be critical, and this finding gives us some insight into the time window for treatment."
," Ambroio concludes.
Source: Biological Exploration.