L ower limb muscle atrophy and weakness are common in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and make an important contribution to limiting their exercise tolerance [1]. Muscle disuse, hypoxaemia, malnutrition, oxidative stress and systemic inflammation have all been portrayed as possible causes of muscle dysfunction in COPD [2]. As far as systemic inflammation is concerned,...

Permanent lack of motor innervation results in striking alterations of functional and structural properties of muscle. In SCI patients, direct Functional Electrical Stimulation of denervated muscles (FES of DDM) prevents or reverts muscle atrophy. FES is, however, believed to be effective when started early after SCI, since long term denervated muscle do not contract by commercial surface elect...

Skeletal muscle atrophy results from various conditions including high levels of glucocorticoids, and β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate (HMB; a metabolite of leucine) is a potent therapeutical supplement used to treat various muscle disorders. Recent studies have demonstrated that HMB inhibits dexamethasone-induced atrophy in cultured myotubes, but its effect on dexamethasone-induced muscle atrophy ha...

RATIONALE The molecular mechanisms of muscle atrophy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are poorly understood. In wasted animals, muscle mass is regulated by several AKT-related signaling pathways. OBJECTIVES To measure the protein expression of AKT, forkhead box class O (FoxO)-1 and -3, atrogin-1, the phosphophrylated form of AKT, p70(S6K) glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3be...

The protein O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification plays an important role in skeletal muscle development and physiological function. In this study, bitransgenic mice were generated that overexpressed NCOAT(GK), an O-GlcNAcase-inactive spliced variant of the O-GlcNAcase gene, specifically in skeletal muscle using the muscle creatine kinase promoter. Expression of the chimeric en...