Developing a non-invasive stable isotope-based measure of skeletal muscle mass
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a non-invasive stable isotope-based measure of skeletal muscle mass
IRAS ID
171423
Contact name
Andrew Philp
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 26 days
Research summary
Muscles represent the largest organ in the body, making up over 50% of total body weight. Most people know that skeletal muscles are important for movement and to support the skeleton, but not everyone is aware of how important muscles are for whole-body health. For example, muscles represent a vast protein store containing amino acids (the building blocks of protein) which can be broken down in times of fasting, infection and disease in order to provide energy to help other vital organs. Most people will have noticed that with age people become frail. This is principally due to the wasting of skeletal muscle known as “sarcopenia”. Crucially, sarcopenia is more than just a symptom of weakness and poor functional capacity; it exposes people to an increased risk of falls and fractures, impacting quality of life, independence, health status and ultimately lifespan. It is because of these detrimental effects on health, and the associated health costs that sarcopenia is of grave concern. Therefore, there is a significant clinical need to pre-identify at-risk older individuals who have low muscle mass so that they can be offered an intervention (diet, exercise or drug-based) before they suffer any of the potential problems outlined above. Current techniques for measuring whole-body muscle mass, including MRI and CT are both time-consuming and expensive, meaning that muscle wasting conditions such as sarcopenia often go undiagnosed. In this project we propose a potential solution to this problem by developing a diagnostic of sarcopenia that requires only a single drink and subsequent urine collection.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0248
Date of REC Opinion
12 Aug 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion