RhoA/ROCK inhibition improves the beneficial effects of glucocorticoid treatment in dystrophic muscle: implications for stem cell depletion.

ABSTRACT: Glucocorticoid treatment represents a standard palliative treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients, but various adverse effects have limited this treatment. In an effort to understand the mechanism(s) by which glucocorticoids impart their effects on the dystrophic muscle, and potentially reduce the adverse effects, we have studied the effect of prednisolone treatment in dystrophin/utrophin double knockout (dKO) mice, which exhibit a severe dystrophic phenotype due to rapid muscle stem cell depletion. Our results indicate that muscle stem cell depletion in dKO muscle is related to upregulation of mTOR, and that prednisolone treatment reduces the expression of mTOR and other pro-inflammatory mediators, consequently slowing down muscle stem cell depletion. However, prednisolon

SUBMITTER: Mu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5886088 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature