Background. In this study we investigated the relevance of myostatin and Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) in patients undergoing hemodialysis HD and the influence of different HD modalities on their levels. Methods. We performed a prospective crossover study in which HD patients were randomized to undergo 3-month treatment periods with bicarbonate hemodialysis (BHD) followed by online hemodiafilt...

Myostatin is expressed in skeletal muscle tissue where it functions to suppress myoblast proliferation and myofiber hypertrophy. Recently, myostatin was detected in the tendon, mammary gland, and adipose tissue of mice. We sought to determine whether myostatin is expressed in the liver, spleen, lung, and kidney of pigs. Real-time PCR and Western blots demonstrated that myostatin, follistatin, d...

Myostatin, a member of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily, is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass in mammals. We have studied myostatin expression during embryonic and post-hatching development in zebrafish by semiquantitative RT-PCR. The transcript is present in just-fertilized eggs and declines at 8 h post-fertilization (hpf), suggesting a maternal origin. A secondary ri...

Tendons play a significant role in the modulation of forces transmitted between bones and skeletal muscles and consequently protect muscle fibers from contraction-induced, or high-strain, injuries. Myostatin (GDF-8) is a negative regulator of muscle mass. Inhibition of myostatin not only increases the mass and maximum isometric force of muscles, but also increases the susceptibility of muscle f...

Myostatin is an extracellular cytokine mostly expressed in skeletal muscles and known to play a crucial role in the negative regulation of muscle mass. Upon the binding to activin type IIB receptor, myostatin can initiate several different signalling cascades resulting in the upregulation of the atrogenes and downregulation of the important for myogenesis genes. Muscle size is regulated via a c...

Changes in skeletal muscle mass are controlled by mechanisms that dictate protein synthesis or degradation. The current human study explored whether changes in activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt1, p38, myostatin, and mRNA expression of markers of protein degradation and synthesis occur soon after withdrawal of weight bearing. Biopsies of the vastus lateralis muscle (VL) and ...

Myostatin is a negative regulator of muscle mass that may contribute to the muscle wasting observed in response to traumatic injury. The purpose of this study was to determine whether muscle myostatin mRNA abundance was altered by different traumatic insults and whether the change in myostatin was associated with alterations in insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-II mRNA in gastrocnemius...

Myostatin, a muscle-specific transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), negatively regulates skeletal muscle mass. The N-terminal prodomain of myostatin noncovalently binds to and suppresses the C-terminal mature domain (ligand) as an inactive circulating complex. However, which region of the myostatin prodomain is required to inhibit the biological activity of myostatin has remained unknown. We ide...

Mice genetically deficient in growth and differentiation factor 8 (GDF8/myostatin) had markedly increased muscle fiber numbers and fiber hypertrophy. In the regenerating muscle of mice possessing FGF6 mutation, fiber remodeling was delayed. Although myostatin and FGF6 may be important for the maintenance, regeneration and/or hypertrophy of muscle, little work has been done on the possible role ...

The objective of this study was to establish the developmental pattern and tissue specificity of porcine myostatin expression and to evaluate expression in skeletal muscle during circumstances in which muscle growth was altered. Northern blot analysis revealed two transcripts (1.5 and 0.8 kb). Myostatin mRNA was detected in whole fetuses at 21 and 35 days and was markedly increased ( P < 0.05) ...