Studying spaceflight atrophy with machine learning

Even intense exercise by astronauts cannot compensate for muscle atrophy caused by microgravity. Atrophy occurs, in part, by way of an underlying mechanism that regulates calcium uptake. Recent research has shown exposure ...

Scientists reveal how RNA gets spliced correctly

To carry out all of life's functions, proteins must be produced from instructions carried by genes within DNA and delivered to the cell's protein-making machinery by messenger RNA.

Scientists discover secreted protein helps repair and grow muscles

Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered that a protein called platelet-derived growth factor subunit B (PDGF-B) is continuously secreted from skeletal muscle cells and helps to repair muscles by encouraging ...

Mini but mighty: Tiny WNT messengers help muscles grow

WNT signaling is crucial for the development of organisms and the maintenance of tissue homeostasis, since the WNT messengers are involved in a variety of cellular functions. In skeletal muscle, for example, they can increase ...

An antioxidative stress regulator protects muscle tissue in space

Many kids dream of growing up to be astronauts; but the downside of spending extended amounts of time in low gravity is that astronauts' muscles tend to shrink and weaken through disuse. Now, researchers from Japan have identified ...

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Atrophy

Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply to the target organ, disuse or lack of exercise or disease intrinsic to the tissue itself. Hormonal and nerve inputs that maintain an organ or body part are referred to as trophic.

Atrophy is a general physiological process of reabsorption and breakdown of tissues, involving apoptosis on a cellular level. When it occurs as a result of disease or loss of trophic support due to other disease, it is termed pathological atrophy, although it can be a part of normal body development and homeostasis as well.

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