Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic and progressive disease that is determined by increasing blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is the most common form of the disease and accounts for 85% to 95% of cases. T2D may be asymptomatic for years, but with hyperglycemia, certain symptoms such as polyphagia, polyuria, and polydipsia appear. Long-term effects of T2D include microvascular complications (retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and myopathy) and macrovascular (coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and brain disease). Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is an important feature of T2D. But in recent years, it has become increasingly diagnosed that T2D causes skeletal muscle atrophy and muscle fiber loss. Given the increasing number of patients with T2D, the number of people with muscle loss is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades.
Methods: The search was conducted in the Scopus and PubMed databases with the keywords type 2 diabetes, skeletal muscle.
Results: Studies have shown that the loss of leg muscle mass in type 2 diabetic patients is partly due to increased levels of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. In addition, apoptotic markers such as P53, caspase-3, and Bax / Bcl2 ratio are higher in the muscles of some models of diabetic rodents than in control muscles.
Conclusion: Diabetic hyperglycemia increases cell apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in muscles; Diabetes also affects skeletal muscle by reducing myogenic activity and mitochondrial content and increasing systemic inflammation.