Biomarkers of skeletal muscle regulation, metabolism and dysfunction.

This chapter examines recent metabolomics studies of the skeletal muscle and their influence on the understanding of metabolism. The chapter is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 describes methods and approaches for the direct study of muscle and historical antecedents rooted in dietary work. Part 2 provides an overview of anabolic studies where metabolic study of the muscle development itself is the primary objective. Lastly, part 3 focuses on muscle metabolites as a function of other disease states. Throughout the chapter, there is an emphasis on circulating biomarkers that are informative for muscle dysfunction and/or turnover, and also form the majority of the published literature on this topic. In some cases, such as methylhistidine derivatives, these compounds have been well known for many years, but novel applications are being found using metabolomics technologies.