Absence of relationship between the level of electron transport chain activities and aging in human skeletal muscle

We investigated the relationship between age and respiratory chain function of skeletal muscle mitochondria in 132 control individuals (15 to 95 years old). Muscle mitochondria were studied polarographically and spectrophotometrically. By regression analysis, we found a significant inverse correlation between age and oxygen uptake linked to substrate oxidation (succinate, glutamate-malate or ascorbate-TMPD). However, this significance disappeared after including physical activity and tobacco consumption as confounding variables in a multivariate statistical analysis. Similarly, the activity of respiratory chain complexes individually measured did not decline with age. It therefore appears that respiratory chain activity in human skeletal muscle mitochondria is substantially undamaged during the aging process. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.