In this super-aging society of Japan, 30% of men and half of woman of 80 years old and over fall under sarcopenia that muscle mass and strength decrease with age. As a view of elderly care and cost of medical bills, to maintain muscle function and prevent sarcopenia is one of the crucial health issues. Therefore, we are exploring marine lipids which exhibit preventive effect of muscle atrophy and regulate energy metabolism via interaction of skeletal muscle and other organs.

Since decrease of regenerative ability to repair damaged muscle fibers is associated with muscle atrophy, compounds to promote differentiation from myoblasts to myotube cells can be helpful for preventing it. Our laboratory has identified some marine lipids that promote myogenesis in C2C12 myoblasts and primary myoblasts collected from mouse skeletal muscle. We are proceeding further evaluation using aging and metabolic disease in vivo models. It is expected that clarifying the relationship between the characteristic chemical structure and their biological activity of marine lipids leads to the effective utilization of unused resources.