Inhibition of myostatin via a dominant negative mutant produces significant muscle hypertrophy without hyperplasia in mice, highlighting its potential for treating muscle degenerative disorders.
Myostatin, a TGF-beta family member, is a negative regulator of muscle growth. Here, we generated transgenic mice that expressed myostatin mutated at its cleavage site under the control of a muscle specific promoter creating a dominant negative myostatin. These mice exhibited a significant (20-35%) increase in muscle mass that resulted from myofiber hypertrophy and not from myofiber hyperplasia. We also evaluated the role of myostatin in muscle degenerative states, such as muscular dystrophy, and found significant downregulation of myostatin. Thus, further inhibition of myostatin may permit increased muscle growth in muscle degenerative disorders.
Zhu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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