Myostatin (MSTN) is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. Strategies to block myostatin signaling pathway have been extensively pursued to increase muscle mass in various disease settings including muscular dystrophy. Here, we report a new class of reagents based on transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) to disrupt myostatin expression at the genome level. We designed ...

Myostatin is an extracellular negative regulator of muscle growth with an important role in bovine muscular hypertrophy. It belongs to the transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily, and has structural and functional characteristics similar to those of its other, members. Based on these characteristics, we designed three gene constructs in order to create a series of dominant negativ...

Myostatin (Mstn) is a secreted growth factor expressed in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue that negatively regulates skeletal muscle mass. Mstn(-/-) mice have a dramatic increase in muscle mass, reduction in fat mass, and resistance to diet-induced and genetic obesity. To determine how Mstn deletion causes reduced adiposity and resistance to obesity, we analyzed substrate utilization and insu...

Myostatin (MSTN) is a secreted growth factor expressed in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue that negatively regulates skeletal muscle mass. Gene knockout of MSTN can result in increasing muscle mass in sheep. The objectives were to investigate whether myostatin gene can be edited in sheep by transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) in tandem with single-stranded DNA oligonucleo...

Background Myostatin (MSTN), a member of the transforming growth factor beta family, negatively regulates skeletal muscle mass. Deletion of the Mstn gene results in increased muscle mass. Also, Mstn-/mice and mice expressing a dominant negative MSTN receptor (activin receptor type IIB, ACVR2B) show decreased adipose tissue. Mstn-/mice fed a high fat diet gain less weight, have improved glucose ...

Myostatin (GDF8) is a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) superfamily. The finding that animals with a knockout or mutation of the myostatin-encoding gene show increased muscle mass suggests that myostatin negatively regulates muscle growth. The study reported here was designed to investigate the effect of induction of maternal myostatin antibody on the growth performance a...

BACKGROUND Cardiac cachexia is characterized by an exaggerated loss of skeletal muscle, weakness, and exercise intolerance, although the cause of these effects remains unknown. Here, we hypothesized that the heart functions as an endocrine organ in promoting systemic cachexia by secreting peptide factors such as myostatin. Myostatin is a cytokine of the transforming growth factor-beta superfami...

Myostatin (MSTN) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily of cytokines and is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. Compared with MSTN(+/+) mice, the extensor digitorum longus muscles of MSTN(-/-) mice exhibit hypertrophy, hyperplasia, and greater maximum isometric force production (F(o)), but decreased specific maximum isometric force (sF(o); F(o) normalized by muscl...

Skeletal muscles in the limb and body trunk are composed of heterogeneous myofibers expressing different isoforms of myosin heavy chain (Myh), including type I (slow, Myh7), IIA (intermediate, Myh2), IIX (fast, Myh1), and IIB (very fast, Myh4). While the contraction force and speed of a muscle are known to be determined by the relative abundance of myofibers expressing each Myh isoform, it is u...

Myostatin-deficient mice showed a remarkable hypertrophy of skeletal muscle, with a decreased fat mass and enhanced insulin sensitivity. Currently, it is unclear if the inhibition of myostatin could be used as an approach to treat human obesity and insulin resistance. In this study, we investigated if the inhibition of porcine myostatin has any effect on fat deposition and insulin sensitivity u...