WFIKKN1 and WFIKKN2 are large extracellular multidomain proteins consisting of a WAP, a follistatin, an immunoglobulin, two Kunitz-type protease inhibitor domains, and an NTR domain. Recent experiments have shown that WFIKKN2 protein binds mature GDF8/myostatin and myostatin propeptide and inhibits the biological activity of myostatin (Hill, J. J., Qiu, Y., Hewick, R. M., and Wolfman, N. M. (20...

Obesity is associated with insulin resistance in skeletal muscle; accordingly, weight loss dramatically improves insulin action. We sought to identify molecular remodeling of muscle commensurate with weight loss that could explain improvements in insulin action. Muscle from morbidly obese women was studied before and after gastric bypass surgery. Gastric bypass surgery significantly reduced bod...

myostatin (mstn), also known as growth and differentiation factor-8 (gdf8), is a member of the transforming growth factor beta (tgf-?) superfamily that decreases growth in mammals. a single nucleotide polymorphism (snp) in the myostatin (gdf8) 3'utr of oar2 has been known as responsible for muscular hypertrophy in foreign breeds. in this study, in order to identify single nucleotide polymo...

To assess whether the same mutation(s) were responsible for similar phenotypes attributed to ovine chromosome 2 (OAR2) quantitative trait loci (QTL) in different sheep breeds, Suffolk, Texel and Charollais rams from British commercial flocks were genotyped for two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in the myostatin (GDF8) region of OAR2, previously detected in progeny of Belgian Tex...

BACKGROUND: Successful blastocyst implantation requires the differentiation of human endometrial stromal cells (HESC), a process known as decidualization. Activin A, a transforming growth factor b (TGFb) superfamily member, enhances HESC decidualization and localizes to decidual cells in human endometrium. Other TGFb superfamily members, including BMP2, BMP4, BMP7, GDF5, GDF8, GDF11, TGFbs and ...

BACKGROUND Successful blastocyst implantation requires the differentiation of human endometrial stromal cells (HESC), a process known as decidualization. Activin A, a transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily member, enhances HESC decidualization and localizes to decidual cells in human endometrium. Other TGFbeta superfamily members, including BMP2, BMP4, BMP7, GDF5, GDF8, GDF11, TG...

A directed search for QTL affecting carcass traits was carried out in the region of growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF8, also known as myostatin) on ovine chromosome 2 in seven Texel-sired half-sib families totaling 927 progeny. Weights were recorded at birth, weaning, ultrasound scanning, and slaughter. Ultrasonic measures of LM cross-sectional dimensions and s.c. fat above the LM were made,...