Advancing our understanding of skeletal muscle across the lifecourse: protocol for the MASS_Lifecourse Study and characteristics of the first 80 participants

Introduction Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of skeletal muscle strength and mass, carries a significant burden for affected individuals. There has been little investigation of sarcopenia using experimental medicine techniques to study human muscle tissue in detail. The aim of the Muscle Ageing Sarcopenia Studies Lifecourse (MASS_Lifecourse) study is to recruit up to 160 participants, equally divided between females and males between ages 45 and 85 years for detailed phenotyping of skeletal muscle health. Here we describe the protocol for the study and the characteristics of the first 80 participants.  Methods We are recruiting participants from three sources in the north-east of England. Study fieldwork comprises a home visit (or videocall) for consent and assessment of health, cognition, lifestyle, and wellbeing. This is followed by a visit to a clinical research facility for assessment of sarcopenia status and collection of samples including a vastus lateralis muscle biopsy. We produced descriptive statistics for the first 80 participants, including expressing their grip strength relative to normative data in the form of Z-scores. Results The first 80 participants (53.8% female) covered the target ages, ranging from 48 to 84 years. They were regularly physically active, reported good physical function and had a prevalence sarcopenia (including probable sarcopenia) of 11.3% based on the revised European consensus. Their grip strength was similar to that in the general population, with a mean Z-score of 0.09 standard deviations (95% CI: -1.64, 1.83) above that expected. Conclusions The MASS_Lifecourse study combines comprehensive health and lifestyle data with a range of biological samples including skeletal muscle. The findings from planned analyses should contribute to improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of sarcopenia.