Muscle growth is associated with an activation of the mTOR signaling pathway and satellite cell regulators. The purpose of this study was to determine whether 17 selected genes associated with mTOR/muscle protein synthesis and the satellite cells/myogenic program are differentially expressed in young and older human skeletal muscle at rest and in response to a potent anabolic stimulus (resistance exercise+essential amino acid ingestion; RE+EAA). Twelve male subjects (6 young, 6 old) completed a bout of heavy resistance exercise. Muscle biopsies were obtained before and at 3 and 6h post RE+EAA. Subjects ingested leucine-enriched essential amino acids at 1h post-exercise. mRNA expression was determined using qRT-PCR. At rest, hVps34 mRNA was elevated in the old (P<0.05) while there was a tendency for levels of myoD, myogenin and TSC2 mRNA to be higher than young. The anabolic stimulus (RE+EAA) altered mRNAs associated with mTOR regulation. Notably, REDD2 decreased in both age groups (P<0.05) but the expression of Rheb mRNA increased only in the young. Finally, cMyc mRNA was elevated (P<0.05) in both young and old at 6h post RE+EAA. Furthermore, RE+EAA also increased expression of several mRNAs associated with satellite function in the young (P<0.05), while expression of these mRNAs did not change in the old. We conclude that several anabolic genes in muscle are more responsive in young men post RE+EAA. Our data provide new insights into the regulation of genes important for transcription and translation in young and old human skeletal muscle post RE+EAA.