Recent studies in septic models have shown that myocardial calpain activity and TNF-α expression increase during sepsis and that inhibition of calpain activation downregulates myocardial TNF-α expression and improves cardiac dysfunction. However, the mechanism underlying this pathological process is unclear. Thus, in the present study, we aimed to explore whether IκBα/NF-κB signaling linked myo...

Calpastatin (CAST) is an endogenous calpain inhibitor and its main function is to modulate the proteolytic action of enzymes responsible for post-mortem myofibril deterioration. The myostatin gene (GDF-8) acts as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. The expression of these two genes, as well as their interaction, affects the quality of the meat, especially the tenderness phenotype. W...

Angiogenesis is an integral part of both the pulmonary inflammatory response to chronic exposure to cigarette smoke and the lung tissue remodeling associated with cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To investigate the role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of COPD, we evaluated the effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on angiogenesis of pulmonary artery en...

Fiber-type transitions in adult skeletal muscle induced by chronic low-frequency stimulation (CLFS) encompass coordinated exchanges of myofibrillar protein isoforms. CLFS-induced elevations in cytosolic Ca(2+) could activate proteases, especially calpains, the major Ca(2+)-regulated cytosolic proteases. Calpain activity determined by a fluorogenic substrate in the presence of unaltered endogeno...

The objectives of this study were to confirm a location of the calpastatin (CAST) gene in chromosome 2 and to detect associations of genetic variations with economic traits in the porcine CAST gene as a candidate gene for growth and meat quality traits in pigs. Calpastatin is a specific endogenous inhibitor of calpains. The calpain protease system is ubiquitous, and is involved in numerous grow...

The calpain gene family and its inhibitors have diverse effects, many related to protein turnover, which appear to affect a range of phenotypes such as diabetes, exercise-induced muscle injury, and pathological events associated with degenerative neural diseases in humans, fertility, longevity, and postmortem effects on meat tenderness in livestock species. The calpains are inhibited by calpast...