Molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle atrophy in a mouse model of cerebral ischemia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Loss of muscle mass and function is a severe complication in patients with stroke that contributes to promoting physical inactivity and disability. The deleterious consequences of skeletal muscle mass loss underline the necessity to identity the molecular mechanisms involved in skeletal muscle atrophy after cerebral ischemia. METHODS: Transient focal cerebral ischemia (60 minutes) was induced by occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery in C57BL/6J male mice. Skeletal muscles were removed 3 days later and analyzed for the regulation of critical determinants of muscle mass homeostasis (Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, myostatin-Smad2/3 and bone morphogenetic protein-Smad1/5/8 signaling pathways, ubiquitin-proteasome and autophagy-lysosome proteolytic pathways). RESULTS: Cerebral ischemia induced severe sensorimotor deficits associated with muscle mass loss of the paretic limbs. Mechanistically, cerebral ischemia repressed Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway and increased expression of key players of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (MuRF1 [muscle RING finger-1], MAFbx [muscle atrophy F-box], Musa1 [muscle ubiquitin ligase of SCF complex in atrophy-1]), together with a marked increase in myostatin expression, in both paretic and nonparetic skeletal muscles. The Smad1/5/8 pathway was also activated. CONCLUSIONS: Our data fit with a model in which a repression of Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway and an increase in the expression of key players of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway are critically involved in skeletal muscle atrophy after cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia also caused an activation of bone morphogenetic protein-Smad1/5/8 signaling pathway, suggesting that compensatory mechanisms are also concomitantly activated to limit the extent of skeletal muscle atrophy.

Pharmacological inhibition of myostatin improves skeletal muscle mass and function in a mouse model of stroke.

In stroke patients, loss of skeletal muscle mass leads to prolonged weakness and less efficient rehabilitation. We previously showed that expression of myostatin, a master negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass, was strongly increased in skeletal muscle in a mouse model of stroke. We therefore tested the hypothesis that myostatin inhibition would improve recovery of skeletal muscle mass and function after cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia (45 minutes) was induced by intraluminal right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Swiss male mice were randomly assigned to Sham-operated mice (n = 10), MCAO mice receiving the vehicle (n = 15) and MCAO mice receiving an anti-myostatin PINTA745 (n = 12; subcutaneous injection of 7.5 mg.kg-1 PINTA745 immediately after surgery, 3, 7 and 10 days after MCAO). PINTA745 reduced body weight loss and improved body weight recovery after cerebral ischemia, as well as muscle strength and motor function. PINTA745 also increased muscle weight recovery 15 days after cerebral ischemia. Mechanistically, the better recovery of skeletal muscle mass in PINTA745-MCAO mice involved an increased expression of genes encoding myofibrillar proteins. Therefore, an anti-myostatin strategy can improve skeletal muscle recovery after cerebral ischemia and may thus represent an interesting strategy to combat skeletal muscle loss and weakness in stroke patients.

Post-transcriptional regulation of autophagy in C2C12 myotubes following starvation and nutrient restoration.

In skeletal muscle, autophagy is activated in multiple physiological and pathological conditions, notably through the transcriptional regulation of autophagy-related genes by FoxO3. However, recent evidence suggests that autophagy could also be regulated by post-transcriptional mechanisms. The purpose of the study was therefore to determine the temporal regulation of transcriptional and post-transcriptional events involved in the control of autophagy during starvation (4h) and nutrient restoration (4h) in C2C12 myotubes. Starvation was associated with an activation of autophagy (decrease in mTOR activity, increase in AMPK activity and Ulk1 phosphorylation on Ser467), an increase in autophagy flux (increased LC3B-II/LC3B-I ratio, LC3B-II level and LC3B-positive punctate), and an increase in the content of autophagy-related proteins (Ulk1, Atg13, Vps34, and Atg5-Atg12 conjugate). Our data also indicated that the content of autophagy-related proteins was essentially maintained when nutrient sufficiency was restored. By contrast, mRNA level of Ulk1, Atg5, Bnip3, LC3B and Gabarapl1 did not increase in response to starvation. Accordingly, binding of FoxO3 transcription factor on LC3B promoter was only increased at the end of the starvation period, whereas mRNA levels of Atrogin1/MAFbx and MuRF1, two transcriptional targets of FoxO involved in ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, were markedly increased at this time. Together, these data provide evidence that target genes of FoxO3 are differentially regulated during starvation and that starvation of C2C12 myotubes is associated with a post-transcriptional regulation of autophagy.

Regulation of Akt-mTOR, ubiquitin-proteasome and autophagy-lysosome pathways in response to formoterol administration in rat skeletal muscle.

Administration of ß2-agonists triggers skeletal muscle anabolism and hypertrophy. We investigated the time course of the molecular events responsible for rat skeletal muscle hypertrophy in response to 1, 3 and 10 days of formoterol administration (i.p. 2000µg/kg/day). A marked hypertrophy of rat tibialis anterior muscle culminated at day 10. Phosphorylation of Akt, ribosomal protein S6, 4E-BP1 and ERK1/2 was increased at day 3, but returned to control level at day 10. This could lead to a transient increase in protein translation and could explain previous studies that reported increase in protein synthesis following ß2-agonist administration. Formoterol administration was also associated with a significant reduction in MAFbx/atrogin-1 mRNA level (day 3), suggesting that formoterol can also affect protein degradation of MAFbx/atrogin1 targeted substrates, including MyoD and eukaryotic initiation factor-3f (eIF3-f). Surprisingly, mRNA level of autophagy-related genes, light chain 3 beta (LC3b) and gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor-associated protein-like 1 (Gabarapl1), as well as lysosomal hydrolases, cathepsin B and cathepsin L, was significantly and transiently increased after 1 and/or 3 days, suggesting that autophagosome formation would be increased in response to formoterol administration. However, this has to be relativized since the mRNA level of Unc-51-like kinase1 (Ulk1), BCL2/adenovirus E1B interacting protein3 (Bnip3), and transcription factor EB (TFEB), as well as the protein content of Ulk1, Atg13, Atg5-Atg12 complex and p62/Sqstm1 remained unchanged or was even decreased in response to formoterol administration. These results demonstrate that the effects of formoterol are mediated, in part, through the activation of Akt-mTOR pathway and that other signaling pathways become more important in the regulation of skeletal muscle mass with chronic administration of ß2-agonists.