Exercise and training increase muscle mass, and conversely, if you do not move, muscle mass decreases.When you lose muscle, it becomes difficult to exercise, and when you stop exercising, you lose more muscle, creating a virtuous cycle.In addition, such a virtuous cycle may be accelerated at once by being forced to rest on the bed due to hospitalization or surgery.The decrease in muscle and athletic ability due to aging is called "sarcopenia" and has become a major problem in Japan, where aging is advancing.However, the mechanism by which muscles are reduced without movement has not been clarified so far.

　This time, the research group has developed a method (biological imaging) for observing changes in calcium concentration in the muscles of living animals.As a result, in experiments using mice, the intracellular calcium concentration is usually kept low, but if the muscles are not moved, the calcium concentration in the muscle cells becomes even lower, which causes the muscle mass to be reduced. It turned out.At this time, it was also found that the three proteins Piezo1, KLF15, and IL-6 work in order to reduce muscle mass.

　Currently, there are no effective treatments for muscle loss.This study revealed that the IL-6 antibody may be effective as an inhibitor of muscle loss, but there are concerns about the side effect of lowering the immune system when treated with the IL-6 antibody.If we can develop a drug that acts on Piezo1 and KLF15 in the future, we can expect it to become a breakthrough therapeutic drug for muscle loss, and we have already started the development of such a drug with the support of the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. It is said that it is.

Paper information:[Journal of Clinical Investigation] A Piezo1 / KLF15 / IL-6 axis mediates immobilization-induced muscle atrophy