Seminars in Ageing: Associations between female sex hormones and skeletal muscle ageing

About the presenter

Dr Séverine Lamon is Professor and Faculty of Health’s Associate Dean for Research at Deakin University, where she leads a laboratory focused on skeletal muscle physiology, ageing and sex differences. Her work integrates human cohorts with cutting-edge molecular and multi-omics approaches to understand the biological drivers of musculoskeletal ageing. She has established one of the most deeply phenotyped male and female muscle ageing cohorts internationally, providing novel insights into how ageing trajectories differ between sexes. Beyond her research, she plays an active leadership role in advancing sex- and gender-inclusive science and contributes to national policy and strategy in health and medical research.

About the seminar

Skeletal muscle plays a fundamental role in human movement, posture and metabolism. Maintaining muscle mass and function and the capacity to exercise as we age is a critical component of healthy ageing and a strong predictor of quality of life and life expectancy. In contrast, age-related muscle loss has functional and metabolic consequences that directly determine an individual’s capacity to work, live independently, respond to medical treatment and recover from hospitalization.

Skeletal muscle is one of the most sex-biased tissues of the body. Sex differences are visible as early as during embryonic development and span all aspects of muscle structure, function and metabolism. Despite this significant dimorphism, female and sex-specific muscle physiology have been historically overlooked. As recently as in the last decade, 37% of all muscle physiology studies had only investigated one of the sexes, and female-specific studies represented less than 6% of all muscle physiology studies overall. As a result, there is a paucity of basic and translational research investigating skeletal muscle physiology and age-related muscle loss from a female perspective.

As a result of this knowledge gap, the role of sex hormones and how their fluctuations across the lifespan influence skeletal muscle health remain mostly unknown. In females, the loss of ovarian follicular activity and altered hormonal status accompanying menopause are associated with increased risk of age-related muscle loss when compared to age-matched males. However, distinguishing between the effects of age and sex hormone deficiency is difficult in humans as these processes occur simultaneously.