Towards ‘Eternal Youth’ of cardiac and skeletal muscle

Abstract

The dream of eternal youth, exemplified throughout history by several examples such as the Epic of Gilgamesh in ancient Sumeria (Figure 1) in which the King of Uruk searches for a plant to restore youth, and the story of Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s classical novel (Figure 2), has captured the imagination of mankind, and continues to be a major target for research. This is stimulated by the fact that the recent increase in life expectancy has resulted in a massive increase in the percentage of “ageing” individuals in the community (Figure 3). Ageing affects several organ systems, with two of the most crippling, involving cardiac and skeletal muscles. In this article we review the recent developments in these two areas.