Protein Kinase B(AKT)-Mediated Lysosomal–Mitochondrial Apoptotic Pathway: Molecular Mechanisms and Implications for Post-Mortem Muscle Tenderization

The tenderness of meat products plays an important role in consumers' purchasing decisions. Post-mortem maturation is a key process for improving meat tenderness, and improvements in tenderness during this process are closely related to the degradation of myofibrillar proteins and myoblast apoptosis. In recent years, many studies have confirmed the roles of apoptosis, related proteins, and metabolic pathways in post-mortem maturation. This paper systematically reviews the mechanism and research status of the lysosomal-mitochondrial apoptosis pathway mediated by protein kinase B in relation to post-mortem meat tenderness. The main contents include physiological changes in post-mortem meat quality, the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis of post-mortem muscle cells, the possible mechanism by which apoptosis regulates meat tenderness, and the lysosomal-mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Finally, we suggest that PKB plays an important role in the lysosomal-mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, and we introduce the mechanism of PKB-meditated apoptosis and its upstream and downstream proteins.