The pathway to muscle fibrosis depends on myostatin stimulating the differentiation of fibro/adipogenic progenitor cells in chronic kidney disease.

ABSTRACT: Fibrosis in skeletal muscle develops after injury or in response to chronic kidney disease (CKD), but the origin of cells becoming fibrous tissue and the initiating and sustaining mechanisms causing muscle fibrosis are unclear. We identified muscle fibro/adipogenic progenitor cells (FAPs) that potentially differentiate into adipose tissues or fibrosis. We also demonstrated that CKD stimulates myostatin production in muscle. Therefore, we tested whether CKD induces myostatin, which stimulates fibrotic differentiation of FAPs leading to fibrosis in skeletal muscles. We isolated FAPs from mouse muscles and found that myostatin stimulates their proliferation and conversion into fibrocytes. In vivo, FAPs isolated from EGFP-transgenic mice (FAPs-EGFP) were transplanted into muscles of mice with

SUBMITTER: Dong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5179308 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature