Clinical impact of sarcopenia and dynapenia on diabetes

Sarcopenia as a progressive and generalized skeletal muscle disorder that is associated with an increased likelihood of adverse outcomes, including falls, fractures, physical disability, and mortality. On the other hand, an age-related decline in muscle strength prior to the reduction of muscle mass, is proposed to be “dynapenia”. Sarcopenia and dynapenia have recently been recognized as a diabetic complications in type 2 diabetes. We firstly indicated that sarcopenia was frequently observed in 16.6% of patients with type 1 diabetes aged even over 40 years. Additionally, we recently reported that the prevalence rate of dynapenia was higher than sarcopenia in patients with type 2 diabetes. Chronic hyperglycemia accelerates accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which causes diabetic vascular complications through oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. We also demonstrated that skin autofluorescence (AF) as a marker of AGEs, was the independent determinant for skeletal muscle mass and strength in patients with type 2 diabetes and muscle strength in type 1 diabetes. Therefore, the early diagnosis of muscle weakness is essential for patients with diabetes and sustained good glycemic control with exercise and dietary intervention might be beneficial to prevent the progression of muscle weakness in these patients.