Atrofia muscular esquelética. Modelos experimentais, manifestações teciduais e fisiopatologia

Abstract

Skeletal muscle atrophy is closely associated to many clinical disorders such as cardiac failure, AIDS, sepsis, cancer and other biological phe- nomenon like ageing, that compromise human health and life style. For this reason, atrophy has been the focus of several clinical and basic research studies in the last decades. However, the mechanisms behind atrophy-induced morphologic, biochemical and functional alterations are still currently not well understood. Indeed, several possibilities regarding its physiopathology have been envisioned including unbal- anced protein turnover, changes in the myosin heavy chain expression pattern and in the metabolic shift towards glycolitic pathway. In addi- tion, the reduction of both myonuclear number and myonuclear domain size also suggest that apoptosis may be imperative in the regulation of these events. Given the clinical importance of this topic concerning the improved quality of life and functional ability, this issue needs to be addressed in greater detail. How does atrophy develop, what are the main signs and which are the new known key points of its phys- iopathology? This treatise highlights some of these questions and tries to contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental biochemical mechanisms behind skeletal muscle atrophy.