Muscular dystrophies (MDs) are a heterogeneous group of inherited disorders characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness likely associated with exhaustion of muscle regeneration potential. At present, no cures or efficacious treatments are available for these diseases, but cell transplantation could be a potential therapeutic strategy. Transplantation of myoblasts using satellite ce...

This study is concerned with the development of an integrated multiple compartment model of the isolated cerebral artery in rat. The smooth muscle/arterial wall complex is an important component of the circulatory model and serves as an “vasomotor organ”, which provides the myogenic mechanism. We have focused on this myogenic mechanism and have developed a model of the electrophysiological, con...

Variation in ACE activity affects myogenic differentiation in C2C12 cells. The present study investigated the mechanism by which ACE influences the myogenic differentiation using the ACE-transduced C2C12 cells. Overexpression of ACE induced the down-regulation of myosin heavy chain, a late myogenic marker at 3-5 days after induction of differentiation. ACE-transduced cells exhibited the immatur...

The myogenic regulatory factors are necessary for the determination and terminal differentiation of skeletal muscle. Gene targeting experiments have demonstrated that MyoD and Myf5 are important for myogenic determination whereas myogenin and MRF4 are important for terminal differentiation and lineage maintenance. During development, all trunk skeletal muscle is derived from the somite. Two spa...

Mutations in the survival motor neuron (SMN1) gene lead to the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Although SMA is primarily considered as a motor neuron disease, the importance of muscle defects in its pathogenesis has not been fully examined. We use both primary cell culture and two different SMA model mice to demonstrate that reduced levels of Smn lead to a profound disrupti...

While skeletal myogenesis is tightly coordinated by myogenic regulatory factors including MyoD and myogenin, chromatin modifications have emerged as vital mechanisms of myogenic regulation. We have previously established that bexarotene, a clinically approved agonist of retinoid X receptor (RXR), promotes the specification and differentiation of skeletal muscle lineage. Here, we examine the gen...

Wnt/beta-catenin signaling plays a critical role in embryonic myogenesis. Here we show that, in P19 embryonic carcinoma stem cells, Wnt/beta-catenin signaling initiates the myogenic process depends on beta-catenin-mediated relief of I-mfa (inhibitor of MyoD Family a) suppression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs). We found that beta-catenin interacted with I-mfa and that the interaction was ...

The expression of the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), Myf5, MyoD, myogenin (Mgn) and MRF4 have been analysed during the development of chicken embryo somites and limbs. In somites, Myf5 is expressed first in somites and paraxial mesoderm at HH stage 9 followed by MyoD at HH stage 12, and Mgn and MRF4 at HH stage 14. In older somites, Myf5 and MyoD are also expressed in the ventrally extendi...

Myogenic regulatory factors of the Myod family (MRFs) are transcription factors essential for mammalian skeletal myogenesis. However, the roles of each gene in myogenesis remain unclear, owing partly to genetic linkage at the Myf5/Mrf4 locus and to rapid morphogenetic movements in the amniote somite. In mice, Myf5 is essential for the earliest epaxial myogenesis, whereas Myod is required for ti...

Increasing evidence suggests that the myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) and IGF-I have important roles in the hypertrophy response observed after mechanical loading. We, therefore, hypothesized that a bout of heavy-resistance training would affect the MRF and IGF-I mRNA levels in human skeletal muscle. Six male subjects completed four sets of 6-12 repetitions on a leg press and knee extensor m...