Researchers Identify Key Culprit Causing Muscle Atrophy

Released: 8/13/2012 11:50 AM EDT 

Newswise — Whether you’re old, have been ill, or suffered an injury, you’ve watched gloomily as your muscles have atrophied. The deterioration of muscle—even slight or gradual—is about as common to the human condition as breathing.

Yet despite its everyday nature, scientists know little about what causes skeletal muscles to atrophy. They know proteins are responsible, but there are thousands of possible suspects, and parsing the key actors from the poseurs is tricky.