FoxO1: a novel insight into its molecular mechanisms in the regulation of skeletal muscle differentiation and fiber type specification

// Meng Xu 1,* , Xiaoling Chen 1,* , Daiwen Chen 1 , Bing Yu 1 and Zhiqing Huang 1 1 Key Laboratory for Animal Disease-Resistance Nutrition of China Ministry of Education, Institute of Animal Nutrition, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, P. R. China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Zhiqing Huang, email: // Keywords : FoxO1; skeletal muscle; differentiation; fiber type specification; molecular mechanisms Received : September 27, 2016 Accepted : October 19, 2016 Published : October 25, 2016 Abstract FoxO1, a member of the forkhead transcription factor forkhead box protein O (FoxO) family, is predominantly expressed in most muscle types. FoxO1 is a key regulator of muscle growth, metabolism, cell proliferation and differentiation. In the past two decades, many researches have indicated that FoxO1 is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle differentiation while contrasting opinions consider that FoxO1 is crucial for myoblast fusion. FoxO1 is expressed much higher in fast twitch fiber enriched muscles than in slow muscles and is also closely related to muscle fiber type specification. In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanisms of FoxO1 in the regulation of skeletal muscle differentiation and fiber type specification.