Parkin overexpression protects from ageing‐related loss of muscle mass and strength

Key points Recent evidence suggests that impaired mitophagy, a process in charge of removing damaged/dysfunctional mitochondria and in part regulated by Parkin, could contribute to the ageing‐related loss of muscle mass and function. In the present study, we show that Parkin overexpression attenuates ageing‐related loss of muscle mass and strength and unexpectedly causes hypertrophy in adult skeletal muscles. We also show that Parkin overexpression leads to increases in mitochondrial content and enzymatic activities. Finally, our results show that Parkin overexpression protects from ageing‐related increases in markers of oxidative stress, fibrosis and apoptosis. Our findings place Parkin as a potential therapeutic target to attenuate sarcopenia and improve skeletal muscle health and performance. Abstract The ageing‐related loss of muscle mass and strength, a process called sarcopenia, is one of the most deleterious hallmarks of ageing. Solid experimental evidence indicates that mitochondrial dysfunctions accumulate with ageing and are critical in the sarcopenic process. Recent findings suggest that mitophagy, the process in charge of the removal of damaged/dysfunctional mitochondria, is altered in aged muscle. Impaired mitophagy represents an attractive mechanism that could contribute to the accumulation of mitochondrial dysfunctions and sarcopenia. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the impact of Parkin overexpression in skeletal muscles of young and old mice. Parkin was overexpressed for 4 months in muscles of young (3 months) and late middle‐aged (18 months) mice using i.m. injections of adeno‐associated viruses. We show that Parkin overexpression increased muscle mass, fibre size and mitochondrial enzyme activities in both young and old muscles. In old mice, Parkin overexpression increased muscle strength, primordial germ cell‐1α content and mitochondrial density. Parkin overexpression also attenuated the ageing‐related increase in 4‐hydroxynonenal content (a marker of oxidative stress) and type I collagen content (a marker of fibrosis), as well as the number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick‐end labelling‐positive myonuclei (a marker of apoptosis). Overall, our results indicate that Parkin overexpression attenuates sarcopenia and unexpectedly causes hypertrophy in adult muscles. They also show that Parkin overexpression leads to increases in mitochondrial content and enzymatic activities. Finally, our results show that Parkin overexpression protects against oxidative stress, fibrosis and apoptosis. These findings highlight that Parkin may be an attractive therapeutic target with respect to attenuating sarcopenia and improving skeletal muscle health and performance.