High impact information on gdf8

• The myostatin (MSTN)-null phenotype in mammals is characterized by extreme gains in skeletal muscle mass or "double muscling" as the cytokine negatively regulates skeletal muscle growth [1].
• Taken together, these data suggest that myostatin plays a major role during myogenesis, apart from inhibition of proliferation as well as differentiation [2].
• Myostatin, a secreted growth and differentiation factor (GDF-8) belongs to transforming growth factor (TGF-beta) superfamily that plays as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle development and growth [2].
• Two selection strategies were used to isolate ES cell colonies that contained targeted plasmid insertions in either the no tail or myostatin I gene [3].
• In larval zebrafish at hatching, the most intense myostatin immunoreactivity was evident in the skin epithelium [4].

Biological context of gdf8

• Transgenic zebrafish expressing the Myostatin prodomain exhibited no significant change in myogenic gene expression and differentiation of slow and fast muscle cells at their embryonic stage [5].
• Transient expression analysis revealed that the 1.2 kb zebrafish myostatin 5' flanking sequence could direct green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression predominantly in muscle cells, suggesting that the myostatin 5' flanking sequence contained regulatory elements required for muscle expression [5].

Anatomical context of gdf8

• Although only the precursor protein form was revealed in the adult lateral muscle, we demonstrated that zebrafish myostatin is proteolytically processed and secreted in cultured cells, as is its mammalian counterpart [6].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of gdf8

• In this study, the distribution of myostatin was investigated during larval and postlarval developmental stages of Sparus aurata(sea bream), Solea solea(sole) and Brachydanio rerio(zebrafish) by immunohistochemistry using antisera raised against a synthetic peptide located within the precursor region of sea bream myostatin [4].
• The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), in situ hybridization, and Southern and Northern blots demonstrated that the myostatin expression is not only restricted to skeletal muscle, but it expressed all the tested tissues [2].
• We have studied myostatin expression during embryonic and post-hatching development in zebrafish by semiquantitative RT-PCR [6].
• In the adult muscle, we found the highest expression of myostatin mRNA and protein, which were detectable by Northern and Western blot analyses respectively [6].
• By microinjection dsRNA, corresponding to biologically active C-terminal domain from aminoacid 268 to end codon of tilapia myostatin protein, we produced an increased body mass in treated fish [7].

References