Kyle S . Martin , Silvia S . Blemker and Shayn M . Peirce muscle - specific responses to disuse - induced atrophy Agent - based computational model investigates

Multiscale models of skeletal muscle reveal the complex effects of muscular dystrophy on tissue mechanics and damage susceptibility.

Computational models have been increasingly used to study the tissue-level constitutive properties of muscle microstructure; however, these models were not created to study or incorporate the influence of disease-associated modifications in muscle. The purpose of this paper was to develop a novel multiscale muscle modelling framework to elucidate the relationship between microstructural disease...

Spatial and age-related changes in the microstructure of dystrophic and healthy diaphragms

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive degenerative disease that results in fibrosis and atrophy of muscles. The main cause of death associated with DMD is failure of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle with a fiber microstructure that differs across regions of the muscle. However, no studies to our knowledge have examined spatial variations of muscle fibers in dyst...

Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase Ameliorates Skeletal Muscle Abnormalities, Cachexia and Exercise Intolerance in Mice with Congestive Heart Failure Okutsu et al: EcSOD-mediated Protection Against Cardiac Cachexia

Extracellular superoxide dismutase ameliorates skeletal muscle abnormalities, cachexia, and exercise intolerance in mice with congestive heart failure.

BACKGROUND Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cachexia (muscle wasting) and the hallmark symptom, exercise intolerance. We have previously shown that a nitric oxide-dependent antioxidant defense renders oxidative skeletal muscle resistant to catabolic wasting. Here, we aimed to identify an...

Nuclear actin and Mrtfs control disuse muscle atrophy via Srf activity regulation Running title: The actin/Mrtfs/Srf axis controls disuse atrophy

Skeletal muscle atrophy is a debilitating process associated with a wide variety of conditions including inactivity, disease and aging. Here, we demonstrate that the actin/Mrtfs/Srf pathway is specifically downregulated in muscle atrophy induced by disuse in mice. We show in vivo that the abolition of mechanical signals leads to rapid accumulation of G-actin in myonuclei and export of the Srf c...