Common Gene Transcriptional Patterns Following Immobilization, Spinal Cord Injury, and Unloading in Human Skeletal Muscle

ABSTRACT: Following spinal cord injury, skeletal muscle loss is rapid. This severe atrophy is attributed to declines in protein synthesis and increases in protein breakdown. However, the signaling mechanisms controlling these changes are not well understood. Nine male patients and one female patient with spinal cord injury (SCI) (Mean ± SEM = 43.9 ± 6.7 yrs) were recruited for this study. Six patients were quadriplegics and four patients were paraplegics. Inclusion criteria were as follows: patients above the age of 18 yrs, absence of severe brain injury (Glasgow Coma Scale > 13), absence of muscle-crush injury or compartment syndrome, absence of all of the following conditions: hypoxic injury, systemic sepsis, systemic inflammatory or autoimmune disease, and malignancy. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis muscles of the SCI patients two days and five days post-SCI. Biopsies collected two days post-SCI were included in the current analysis. Expression changes were measured by microarray and gene clustering; identification of enriched functions and canonical pathways were performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). Functional analysis found that 48h following SCI expression, gene expression changes were related to decreases in metabolic functions such as the tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation as well as increases in functions associated with protein degradation such as proteasome activity and ubiquitination. Furthermore, increases in expression of metallothioneins were found to be the most over-represented functional group in the DAVID analysis. Results from this study showed that functional categories of gene expression changes in human skeletal muscle are consistent with previous findings in animals. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis muscles of the SCI patients two days and five days post-SCI. (N = 10). A 5mm Berstrom biopsy needle was used. Biopsy samples were immediately snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen upon excision. All samples were stored at -80° C until analysis.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

SUBMITTER: Eric Hoffman 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-21497 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress