Muscle Function and Sarcopenia: Clinical Implications of Recent Research

While the complexity of sarcopenia pathogenesis has been universally accepted, gender-specific aspects have only received little attention. A recent study on microscopic characteristics of muscle composition in patients with hip fracture and sarcopenia showed a significant difference of fiber atrophy between men and women, with type II (“fast-twitch”) fiber atrophy being present only in men.1 This observation illustrates the need for a more gender-specific analysis of etiologic factors in sarcopenia, as this might also have therapeutic implications in the future.