during aging, made the mice stronger, and allowed them to run longer distances while improving their coordination.
To study this effect more deeply, the scientists measured every known gene product in the muscle using a technique called RNA sequencing."It turned out that blockade of ceramide production activates muscle stem cells, making muscles build up more protein and shifting fiber type towards fast-twitch glycolytic to produce larger and stronger muscles in aged mice," explains Dr. Martin Wohlwend, the main collaborator in the study.
Finally, the scientists looked at whether reducing ceramides in muscle could also be beneficial in humans. They examined thousands of 70–80-year-old men and women from Helsinki, and discovered that 25% of them have a particular form of a gene that reduces the gene products of sphingolipid production pathways in muscle.