Project description:Skeletal muscle, the most abundant body’s tissue, plays vital roles in locomotion and metabolism. Myostatin is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. In addition to increase muscle mass, Myostatin inhibition impacts on muscle contractility and energy metabolism. To decipher the mechanisms of action of the Myostatin inhibitors, we used proteomic and transcriptomic approaches to investigate the changes induced in skeletal muscles of transgenic mice overexpressing Follistatin, a physiological Myostatin inhibitor. Our proteomic workflow included a fractionation step to identify weakly expressed proteins and a comparison of fast versus slow muscles. Functional annotation of altered proteins supports the phenotypic changes induced by Myostatin inhibition, including modifications in energy metabolism, fiber type, insulin and calcium signaling, as well as membrane repair and regeneration. Less than 10% of the differentially expressed proteins were found to be also regulated at the mRNA level but the Biological Process annotation and the KEGG pathways analysis of transcriptomic results showed a great concordance with the proteomic data. Thus, this study describes the most extensive omics analysis of muscle overexpressing Follistatin, providing molecular-level insights to explain the observed muscle phenotypic changes
Project description:Myostatin (GDF8) is a member of the TGF-beta family of proteins which is predominantly expressed in skeletal muscle and acts as a negative regulator of muscle mass. Inhibition of myostatin leads to muscle hypertrophy and has been shown to mitigate insulin resistance in mouse models of type 2 diabetes, although the mechanisms underlying this effect are unclear. We found that myostatin inhibition by AAV-mediated overexpression of the myostatin propeptide improves skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in mice made insulin-resistant by high fat diet feeding. To gain insight into potential gene expression changes responsible for this effect, we performed microarray analysis on skeletal muscle samples from high fat diet-fed mice with and without myostatin inhibition.
Project description:More than 2,000 genes appear to be upregulated or downregulated in skeletal muscle of mice with constitutive knockout of myostatin (Steelman et al., FASEB J 20:580-2, 2006). This study was done to determine whether inhibition of myostatin activity in mature mice has similar effects on the pattern of gene expression. Keywords: Differential expression in treated and control mice
Project description:RNA from 5 mice with postdevelopmental knockout of myostatin and 5 mice with normal myostatin expression was analyzed with comprehensive oligonucleotide microarrays. Myostatin depletion affected the expression of several hundred genes at nominal P < 0.01, but fewer than a hundred effects were statistically significant according to a more stringent criterion (false discovery rate < 5%). Most of the effects were less than 1.5-fold in magnitude. In contrast to previously-reported effects of constitutive myostatin knockout, postdevelopmental knockout did not downregulate expression of genes encoding slow isoforms of contractile proteins or genes encoding proteins involved in energy metabolism. Several collagen genes were expressed at lower levels in the myostatin-deficient muscles, and this led to reduced tissue collagen levels as reflected by hydroxyproline content. Myostatin knockout tended to down-regulate the expression of sets of genes with promoter motifs for Smad3, Smad4, myogenin, NF-κB, serum response factor, and numerous other transcription factors. Main conclusions: in mature muscle, myostatin is a key transcriptional regulator of collagen genes, but not genes encoding contractile proteins or genes encoding proteins involved in energy metabolism. Experiment Overall Design: Comparison of muscle gene expression in 5 mice with postdevelopmental myostatin knockout and 5 control mice
Project description:Because myostatin normally limits skeletal muscle growth, there is an extensive effort to develop myostatin inhibitors for clinical use. One potential concern is that in patients with muscle degenerative diseases, inducing hypertrophy may increase stress on dystrophic fibers. Here, we show that blocking the myostatin pathway in dysferlin mutant mice results in early improvement in histopathology but ultimately accelerates muscle degeneration. Hence, benefits of this approach should be weighed against these potential detrimental effects.
Project description:Cancer cachexia is a prevalent and often fatal wasting condition that cannot be fully reversed with nutritional interventions. Muscle atrophy is a central component of the syndrome, but the mechanisms whereby cancer leads to skeletal muscle atrophy are not well understood. We performed single nucleus multi-omics on skeletal muscles from a mouse model of cancer cachexia and profiled the molecular changes in cachexic muscle. Our results revealed the activation of a denervation-induced gene program that upregulates the transcription factor myogenin. Further studies showed that a myogenin-myostatin pathway promotes muscle atrophy in response to cancer cachexia. shRNA inhibition of myogenin or inhibition of myostatin through overexpression of its endogenous inhibitor follistatin prevented cancer cachexia-induced muscle atrophy in mice. Our findings uncover a molecular basis of cancer cachexia-induced muscle atrophy and highlight potential therapeutic targets for this disorder.
Project description:Inhibition of myostatin signaling induces strong skeletal muscle growth making it an attractive target to treat muscle wasting and sarcopenia. However, the biological function of myostatin in the heart is barely understood. We demonstrate that conditional inactivation of myostatin in the adult murine heart leads to cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure and increased lethality. To induce cardiomyocyte specific loss of myostatin a conditionally active Mstn^fl/fl allele was generated by insertion of loxP elements upstream and downstream of exons 1 and 2 of the mouse myostatin gene. The selection cassette was removed in vivo by flp-recombination. To inactivate myostatin, mice were mated to alphaMyHC-MCM mice (Sohal, DS, et al. (2001) Circulation Research 89, 20-25). Cre-recombination was achieved by intraperitoneal administration of Tamoxifen (40 mg/kg) for 5 consecutive days. The respective control alphaMyHC-MCM animals were equally treated.
Project description:Skeletal muscle insulin resistance, decreased phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activation and altered mitochondrial function are hallmarks of type 2 diabetes. We created mice with a muscle-specific knockout of p110α or p110β, the two major catalytic subunits of PI3K. We find that mice with muscle-specific knockout of p110α, but not p110β, display impaired muscle insulin signaling and reduced muscle size due to enhanced proteasomal and autophagic activity. Despite insulin resistance and muscle atrophy, M-p110αKO mice show decreased serum myostatin, increased mitochondrial mass, increased mitochondrial fusion visualized by intravital microscopy, and increased PGC1α expression, especially PCG1α2 and PCG1α3. This leads to enhanced mitochondrial oxidative capacity, striking increases in muscle NADH content, and higher muscle free radical release measured in vivo using pMitoTimer reporter. Thus, p110α is the dominant catalytic isoform of PI3K in muscle in control of insulin sensitivity and muscle mass, and has a unique role in mitochondrial homeostasis in skeletal muscle.
Project description:Transcription profiling of skeletal muscle (tibialis anterior) of 5-week-old male wild type and myostatin null mice given ad libitum access to 20ppm clenbuterol hydrochloride in drinking water or plain tap water for 2 weeks. The objective of the study was to determine overlap in the mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy of the two models. 2x2 factorial arrangement of genotype (wild type and myostatin null) and clenbuterol treatment (control and clenbuterol at 20 ppm) with 4 replicates.