• Biochim. Biophys. Acta · Oct 2016

    Dexamethasone-induced muscular atrophy is mediated by functional expression of connexin-based hemichannels.

    • Luis A Cea, Elisa Balboa, Carlos Puebla, Aníbal A Vargas, Bruno A Cisterna, Rosalba Escamilla, Tomás Regueira, and Juan C Sáez.
    • Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: luiscea@med.uchile.cl.
    • Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 2016 Oct 1; 1862 (10): 1891-9.

    AbstractLong-term treatment with high glucocorticoid doses induces skeletal muscle atrophy. However, the molecular mechanism of such atrophy remains unclear. We evaluated the possible involvement of connexin-based hemichannels (Cx HCs) in muscle atrophy induced by dexamethasone (DEX), a synthetic glucocorticoid, on control (Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl)) and Cx43/Cx45 expression-deficient (Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl):Myo-Cre) skeletal myofibers. Myofibers of Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl) mice treated with DEX (5h) expressed several proteins that form non-selective membrane channels (Cx39, Cx43, Cx45, Panx1, P2X7 receptor and TRPV2). After 5h DEX treatment in vivo, myofibers of Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl) mice showed Evans blue uptake, which was absent in myofibers of Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl):Myo-Cre mice. Similar results were obtained in vitro using ethidium as an HC permeability probe, and DEX-induced dye uptake in control myofibers was blocked by P2X7 receptor inhibitors. DEX also induced a significant increase in basal intracellular Ca(2+) signal and a reduction in resting membrane potential in Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl) myofibers, changes that were not elicited by myofibers deficient in Cx43/Cx45 expression. Moreover, treatment with DEX induced NFκB activation and increased mRNA levels of TNF-α in control but not in Cx43/Cx45 expression-deficient myofibers. Finally, a prolonged DEX treatment (7days) increased atrogin-1 and Murf-1 and reduced the cross sectional area of Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl) myofibers, but these parameters remained unaffected in Cx43(fl/fl)Cx45(fl/fl):Myo-Cre myofibers. Therefore, DEX-induced expression of Cx43 and Cx45 plays a critical role in early sarcolemma changes that lead to atrophy. Consequently, this side effect of chronic glucocorticoid treatment might be avoided by co-administration with a Cx HC blocker.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…