Life expectancy continues to extend, although frailty caused by loss of skeletal muscle mass continues unimpeded. Muscle atrophy caused by withdrawal of motor nerves is a feature of old age, as it is in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in which skeletal muscle denervation results from motoneuron death. In ALS, direct links have been established between motoneuron death and altered nucleocytoplasmic transport, so we ask whether similar defects accompany motoneuron death in normal ageing. We used immunohistochemistry on mouse tissues to explore potential links between neuromuscular junction (NMJ) degeneration, motoneuron death and nucleocytoplasmic transport regulatory proteins. Old age brought neuromuscular degeneration, motoneuron loss and reductions in immunodetectable levels of key nucleocytoplasmic transport proteins in lumbar motoneurons. We then asked whether exercise inhibited these changes and found that active elderly mice experienced less motoneuron death, improved neuromuscular junction morphology and retention of key nucleocytoplasmic transport proteins in lumbar motoneurons. Our results suggest that emergent defects in nucleocytoplasmic transport may contribute to motoneuron death and age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, and that these defects may be reduced by exercise.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 47. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 January 2023.
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#1,112,308
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#194
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#18,636
of 363,857 outputs
Outputs of similar age from GeroScience
#3
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,221,607 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,591 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 363,857 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
