Disease relevance of GDF8

• Using the allele substitution effect model, the myostatin SNPs were found to have significant (P < 0.031) associations with growth, mortality, blood oxygen and hen antibody titer to infectious bursal disease virus vaccine, although the associations were not often consistent across lines [1].

High impact information on GDF8

• We show that, during chick embryonic development, Myostatin is expressed at stages and positions unlikely to influence qualitative muscle development [2].
• No myostatin, activin-B, follistatin or bFGF expression was detected in either cell culture at 0 h [3].
• The ontogeny of myostatin gene expression with the exception of a sharp increase in BF culture at 72 h (P < 0.01), was nearly identical in both cell cultures [3].
• Myostatin (GDF-8) is known to negatively regulate skeletal muscle mass in myogenesis, but few studies have been conducted on the function of endogenous GDF-8 in primary myoblasts [4].
• An active form of small interfering RNA (siRNA-1) targeting GDF-8 mRNA was introduced into myoblasts, and an inactive form of siRNA (siRNA-2) was used as a negative control [4].

Biological context of GDF8

• Temporal and spatial expression of the myostatin gene during chicken embryo development [5].
• Myostatin mRNA was detected by RT-PCR analysis in embryos collected immediately after oviposition (stage HH1) and persisted until the fifth day of incubation (stage HH26) [5].
• To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms of myostatin function during myogenesis, differential display reverse transcription PCR was employed to identify altered gene expressions associated with myostatin inhibitory function in chicken fetal myoblasts (CFMs) [6].
• Identification of gene expression modifications in myostatin-stimulated myoblasts [6].
• The down-regulation of muscle creatine kinase B, troponin C, and myosin regulatory light chain is in agreement with the myostatin negative role in myocyte differentiation [6].

Anatomical context of GDF8

• Myostatin is a potent growth and differentiation factor involved in skeletal muscle tissue formation in vertebrates [5].
• The temporal and spatial patterns of myostatin expression presented in this study agree with the proposed role of myostatin as modulator of muscle cell proliferation [5].
• These results strongly suggest that deficiency of GDF-8 delays cell differentiation and causes great alterations in the cellular morphology of chicken embryonic myotubes [4].
• In the second experiment, the ontogeny of myostatin was determined from broiler- and Leghorn-type chick embryos, at embryonic days 1 to 20 (E1 to E20), using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR [7].
• Comparison of chicken genotypes: myofiber number in pectoralis muscle and myostatin ontogeny [7].

Other interactions of GDF8

• In the PM muscle, both IGF-I and MSTN mRNA levels increased between 0 and 2 days of age in the fed group, while they remained low in the unfed one [8].
• In addition, the expression alteration of skeletal muscle-specific cardiac ankyrin repeat protein and the bcl-2 related anti-apoptotic protein Nr-13 suggests possible unique roles for myostatin in regulating myogenesis by controlling cofactors participated transcriptional regulation and apoptosis [6].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of GDF8

• Whole-mount in situ hybridization revealed myostatin to be expressed in the ventral myotomal region of mature somites, thus confirming the importance of myostatin in skeletal muscle tissue formation during avian embryogenesis [5].

References