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Frailty in the healthy elderly has become a widespread problem central to the care of geriatric populations. The major factor contributing to frailty is an age-associated loss of muscle mass and function, which has been termed sarcopenia (10). All elderly people show evidence of sarcopenia and loss of function particularly after the seventh decade of life with approximately 40% decline in muscle mass by the age of 80 years (10). The loss of muscle mass and strength with age (particularly in men older than 60 years) is associated with increased mortality (15).

Improvements in muscle mass are largely dependent upon adding new nuclei (6), and declines in muscle mass occur when nuclei are eliminated from skeletal muscles (1, 4, 27). Our hypothesis is that multinucleated muscle fibers undergo an aging-induced apoptotic loss of select nuclei (nuclear apoptosis). This is followed by fiber atrophy which in turn leads to …