Project description:Abstract Background: Gene transfer by electroporation (electro gene transfer) to muscle results in high level long term transgenic expression, showing great promise for treatment of e.g. protein deficiency syndromes. However little is known about the effects of electro gene transfer on muscle fibres. We have therefore investigated transcriptional changes through gene expression profile analyses, as well as morphological changes evaluated by histological analysis. Electro gene transfer was obtained using a combination of a short high voltage pulse (HV, 1000 V/cm, 100 @s) followed by a long low voltage pulse (LV, 100 V/cm, 400 ms); a pulse combination optimised for efficient and safe gene transfer. Muscles were transfected with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and excised at 4 hours, 48 hours or 3 weeks after treatment. Results: Differentially expressed genes were investigated by microarray analysis, and descriptive statistics were performed to evaluate the effects of 1) electroporation, 2) DNA injection, and 3) time after treatment. The biological significance of the results was assessed by gene annotation and supervised cluster analysis. Generally, electroporation caused down-regulation of structural proteins e.g. sarcospan and catalytic en-zymes such as phosphoenolpuryvate carboxykinase. Injection of DNA induced down-regulation of intracellular transport proteins e.g. sentrin. The effects on muscle fibres were transient as the expression profiles 3 weeks after treatment were closely related with the control muscles. Most interestingly, no changes in the expression of proteins involved in inflammatory responses or muscle regeneration was detected, indicating limited muscle damage and regeneration. Histological analysis revealed structural changes with loss of cell integrity and striation pattern in some fibres after DNA+HV+LV treatment, while electroporation alone caused minor loss of striation pattern but preservation of cell integrity. Conclusion: The small and transient changes found in the gene expression profiles are of great importance, as this demonstrates that electro gene transfer is safe with minor effects on the muscle host cells. These findings are essential for introducing the electro gene transfer to muscle for clinical use. Indeed the HV+LV pulse combination used have been optimised to ensure highly efficient and safe electro gene transfer. Keywords: Electro gene transfer, microarray, affymetrix, gene therapy, skeletal muscle, mouse, time course

Project description:We analyzed the functional role of DOR (Diabetes and Obesity Regulated gene) (also named Tp53inp2) in skeletal muscle. We show that DOR has a direct impact on skeletal muscle mass in vivo. Thus, using different transgenic mouse models, we demonstrate that while muscle-specific DOR gain-of-function results in reduced muscle mass, loss-of-function causes muscle hypertrophy. DOR has been described as a protein with two different functions, i.e., a nuclear coactivator and an autophagy regulator (Baumgartner et. al., PLoS One, 2007; Francis et. al., Curr Biol, 2010; Mauvezin et. al., EMBO Rep, 2010; Nowak et. al., Mol Biol Cell, 2009). This is why we decided to analyze which of these two functions could explain the phenotype observed in our mice models. In this regard, we performed a transcriptomic analysis using microarrays looking for genes differentially expressed in the quadriceps muscle of WT and SKM-Tg mice as well as in C and SKM-KO animals. Surprisingly, only a reduced number of genes were dysregulated upon DOR manipulation and most of the genes underwent mild changes in expression. These data strongly suggest that DOR does not operate as a nuclear co-factor in mouse skeletal muscle under the conditions subjected to study. In contrast, DOR enhances basal autophagy in skeletal muscle and promotes muscle wasting when autophagy is a contributor to muscle loss. To determine the functional role of DOR in skeletal muscle, we generated transgenic mice (SKM-Tg) overexpressing DOR specifically in skeletal muscle under the Myosin-Light Chain 1 promoter/enhancer. The open reading frame of DOR was introduced in an EcoRI site in the MDAF2 vector, which contains a 1.5 kb fragment of the MLC1 promoter and 0.9 kb fragment of the MLC1/3 gene containing a 3' muscle enhancer element (Rosenthal et. al., PNAS, 1989; Otaegui et. al., FASEB J, 2003). The fragment obtained after the digestion of this construct with BssHII was the one used to generate both transgenic mouse lines. Nontransgenic littermates were used as controls for the transgenic animals (Wt). In addition, a muscle-specific DOR knock-out mouse line (SKM-KO) was also generated by crossing homozygous DOR loxP/loxP mice with a mouse strain expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the Myosin-Light Chain 1 promoter (Bothe et. al., Genesis, 2000). Deletion of exons 3 and 4 driven by Cre recombinase caused the ablation of DOR expression. Non-expressing Cre DOR loxP/loxP littermates were used as controls for knockout animals (C). Four-month-old male mice were used in all experiments. Mice were in a C57BL/6J pure genetic background.

Project description:Abstract; Background: Gene transfer by electroporation (electro gene transfer) to muscle results in high level long term transgenic expression, showing great promise for treatment of e.g. protein deficiency syndromes. However little is known about the effects of electro gene transfer on muscle fibres. We have therefore investigated transcriptional changes through gene expression profile analyses, as well as morphological changes evaluated by histological analysis. Electro gene transfer was obtained using a combination of a short high voltage pulse (HV, 1000 V/cm, 100 @s) followed by a long low voltage pulse (LV, 100 V/cm, 400 ms); a pulse combination optimised for efficient and safe gene transfer. Muscles were transfected with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and excised at 4 hours, 48 hours or 3 weeks after treatment. Results: Differentially expressed genes were investigated by microarray analysis, and descriptive statistics were performed to evaluate the effects of 1) electroporation, 2) DNA injection, and 3) time after treatment. The biological significance of the results was assessed by gene annotation and supervised cluster analysis. Generally, electroporation caused down-regulation of structural proteins e.g. sarcospan and catalytic en-zymes such as phosphoenolpuryvate carboxykinase. Injection of DNA induced down-regulation of intracellular transport proteins e.g. sentrin. The effects on muscle fibres were transient as the expression profiles 3 weeks after treatment were closely related with the control muscles. Most interestingly, no changes in the expression of proteins involved in inflammatory responses or muscle regeneration was detected, indicating limited muscle damage and regeneration. Histological analysis revealed structural changes with loss of cell integrity and striation pattern in some fibres after DNA+HV+LV treatment, while electroporation alone caused minor loss of striation pattern but preservation of cell integrity. Conclusion: The small and transient changes found in the gene expression profiles are of great importance, as this demonstrates that electro gene transfer is safe with minor effects on the muscle host cells. These findings are essential for introducing the electro gene transfer to muscle for clinical use. Indeed the HV+LV pulse combination used have been optimised to ensure highly efficient and safe electro gene transfer. Experiment Overall Design: The mice did recieve to their tibialis cranialis muscle either No tretment/control (CTRL), Electroporation only (EP), Plasmid injection only (DNA) or Plasmid DNA and in vivo Electro gene transfer (EP+DNA). Experiment Overall Design: Four hrs, 48 hrs and 3 weeks after treatment the mice were euthanized and the expression profile of the treated muscles were analysed. Experiment Overall Design: The following number of mice were included: Experiment Overall Design: CTRL, 3 mice, Experiment Overall Design: EP at 4 hrs, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: EP at 48 hrs, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: EP at 3 weeks, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: DNA at 4 hrs, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: DNA at 48 hrs, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: DNA at 3 weeks, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: EP+DNA at 4 hrs, 2 mice, Experiment Overall Design: EP+DNA at 48 hrs, 1 mouse, Experiment Overall Design: EP+DNA at 3 weeks, 1 mouse. Experiment Overall Design: A total number of mice 13.

Project description:We analyzed the functional role of DOR (Diabetes and Obesity Regulated gene) (also named Tp53inp2) in skeletal muscle. We show that DOR has a direct impact on skeletal muscle mass in vivo. Thus, using different transgenic mouse models, we demonstrate that while muscle-specific DOR gain-of-function results in reduced muscle mass, loss-of-function causes muscle hypertrophy. DOR has been described as a protein with two different functions, i.e., a nuclear coactivator and an autophagy regulator (Baumgartner et. al., PLoS One, 2007; Francis et. al., Curr Biol, 2010; Mauvezin et. al., EMBO Rep, 2010; Nowak et. al., Mol Biol Cell, 2009). This is why we decided to analyze which of these two functions could explain the phenotype observed in our mice models. In this regard, we performed a transcriptomic analysis using microarrays looking for genes differentially expressed in the quadriceps muscle of WT and SKM-Tg mice as well as in C and SKM-KO animals. Surprisingly, only a reduced number of genes were dysregulated upon DOR manipulation and most of the genes underwent mild changes in expression. These data strongly suggest that DOR does not operate as a nuclear co-factor in mouse skeletal muscle under the conditions subjected to study. In contrast, DOR enhances basal autophagy in skeletal muscle and promotes muscle wasting when autophagy is a contributor to muscle loss. To determine the functional role of DOR in skeletal muscle, we generated transgenic mice (SKM-Tg) overexpressing DOR specifically in skeletal muscle under the Myosin-Light Chain 1 promoter/enhancer. The open reading frame of DOR was introduced in an EcoRI site in the MDAF2 vector, which contains a 1.5 kb fragment of the MLC1 promoter and 0.9 kb fragment of the MLC1/3 gene containing a 3' muscle enhancer element (Rosenthal et. al., PNAS, 1989; Otaegui et. al., FASEB J, 2003). The fragment obtained after the digestion of this construct with BssHII was the one used to generate both transgenic mouse lines. Nontransgenic littermates were used as controls for the transgenic animals (Wt). In addition, a muscle-specific DOR knock-out mouse line (SKM-KO) was also generated by crossing homozygous DOR loxP/loxP mice with a mouse strain expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the Myosin-Light Chain 1 promoter (Bothe et. al., Genesis, 2000). Deletion of exons 3 and 4 driven by Cre recombinase caused the ablation of DOR expression. Non-expressing Cre DOR loxP/loxP littermates were used as controls for knockout animals (C). Four-month-old male mice were used in all experiments. Mice were in a C57BL/6J pure genetic background. We used microarrays to analyze the effect of DOR gain-of-function and DOR ablation on skeletal muscle gene expression Total RNA from quadriceps muscles from 4-month-old male mice was extracted and used for hibridization on Affimetrix microarrays

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