Although postnatal maturation potently modulates agonist-induced cerebrovascular contractility, its effects on the mechanisms mediating cerebrovascular myogenic tone remain poorly understood. Because the regulation of calcium influx and myofilament calcium sensitivity change markedly during early postnatal life, the present study tested the general hypothesis that early postnatal maturation inc...

Myogenic regulatory factor (MRF) genes, MYOD1, MYOG, MYF6 and MYF5, are critical for the skeletal muscle lineage. Here, we used various epigenome profiles from human myoblasts (Mb), myotubes (Mt), muscle and diverse non-muscle samples to elucidate the involvement of multigene neighborhoods in the regulation of MRF genes. We found more far-distal enhancer chromatin associated with MRF genes in M...

N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 4 (NDRG4) plays an important role in biological processes and pathogenesis, but its function in muscle development is unclear. In this study, we investigated the function of the NDRG4 gene in the regulation of myogenic differentiation. NDRG4 expression is upregulated during muscle regeneration and C2C12 myoblast differentiation. Gain and loss of function studies ...

The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) have dramatic and complex effects on the growth of many tissues and have been implicated in both the proliferation and differentiation of skeletal muscle cells. A detailed analysis of gene expression was performed in L6E9 myoblast cultures treated with IGF-I to dissect the early events leading to the stimulation of myogenic differentiation by this growth f...

A new test for utricular function has recently been introduced and validated, namely the ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), which refers to the myogenic potentials recorded by surface EMG electrodes beneath both eyes in response to bone conducted vibration (BCV) of the head or air conducted sound (ACS). The oVEMP test differs from another vestibular-evoked myogenic potential r...

Cell-based therapies for degenerative diseases of the musculature remain on the verge of feasibility. Myogenic cells are relatively abundant, accessible, and typically harbor significant proliferative potential ex vivo. However, their use for therapeutic intervention is limited due to several critical aspects of their complex biology. Recent insights based on mouse models have advanced our unde...

We report the establishment of a novel platform to induce myogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) via focal adhesion (FA) modulation, giving insights into the role of FA on stem cell differentiation. Micropatterning of collagen type I on a polyacrylamide gel with a stiffness of 10.2 kPa efficiently modulated elongated FA. This elongated FA profile preferentially recruit...

Skeletal muscle loss is associated with aging as well as pathological conditions. Satellite cells (SCs) play an important role in muscle regeneration. Omega-3 fatty acids are widely studied in a variety of muscle wasting diseases; however, little is known about their impact on skeletal muscle regeneration. The aim of this review is to evaluate studies examining the effect of omega-3 fatty acids...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Myogenic activity of the cerebral arteries is an important contributor to autoregulation of cerebral blood flow. Previous studies have demonstrated that increasing periods of ischemia diminished the amount of myogenic tone in cerebral arteries. In the present study, we investigated the effect of different periods of postischemic reperfusion on the myogenic behavior of mid...

Dlk1, a member of the Epidermal Growth Factor family, is expressed in multiple tissues during development, and has been detected in carcinomas and neuroendocrine tumors. Dlk1 is paternally expressed and belongs to a group of imprinted genes associated with rhabdomyosarcomas but not with other primitive childhood tumors to date. Here, we investigate the possible roles of Dlk1 in skeletal muscle ...