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Inducible deletion of Raptor and mTOR from adult skeletal muscle impairs muscle contractility and relaxation

ABSTRACT: Skeletal muscle weakness has been associated with different pathological conditions, including sarcopenia and muscular dystrophy, and is accompanied by altered mTOR signaling. Here we wanted to better elucidate the functional role of mTOR on muscle contractility. Most loss of function studies for mTOR signaling have used the drug rapamycin to inhibit some of the signaling downstream of mTOR. However, as rapamycin does not completely inhibit all mTOR signaling, we generated a double k.o. for mTOR and for the scaffold protein of mTORC1, Raptor, in skeletal muscle. We found that dk.o. mice results in a more severe phenotype compared to Raptor or mTOR deletion alone. Indeed, they display muscle weakness, increased fiber denervation, and a slower muscle relaxation following tetanic stimulation. This is accompanied by a shift towards slow-twitch fibers and changes in the expression levels of calcium-related genes, like Serca1 and Casq1. Indeed, dk.o. mice show a decrease in calcium decay kinetics after tetanus in vivo, suggestive of a reduced calcium reuptake. In addition, RNA sequencing analysis revealed that many downregulated genes are linked to sarcomere organization, like Tcap and Fhod3. These results suggest a key role for mTOR signaling in maintaining a proper fiber relaxation in skeletal muscle.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE215314 | GEO | 2022/10/19

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Maintaining skeletal muscle mass is of high importance as muscle atrophy like during sarcopenia or cachexia lead to a decrease in independence and a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. A leading compound in the treatment against ageing and cancer is rapamycin, an inhibitor of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Whether the treatment with mTORC1 inhibitors would work at a cost of losing muscle mass is unclear, as most studies have been focusing on the role of mTORC1 specifically during hypertrophy. In order to answer this question we developed an inducible muscle specific knockout mouse model in which raptor can be ablated during adulthood to eliminate mTORC1 activity. We analysed the muscles after different time points and found that after 3 months the mice showed a fiber shift towards slower fiber types, a loss in oxidative capacity but only very few myopathic features. After 5 months the myopathic features became more apparent, however it did not largely affect the ex vivo muscle force. Surprisingly despite the myopathy we did not see a significant loss of muscle mass even after 5 months, that we hypothesised based on mTORC1s central role in protein synthesis. We assume that the myopathy after long-term mTORC1 inactivation is mostly a result of secondary effects through the loss of mitochondria, alterations in metabolism and in cytoskeletal components. In conclusion, during skeletal muscle maintenance mTORC1 is more essential for metabolic processes than it is for maintaining basal muscle mass.Maintaining skeletal muscle mass is of high importance as muscle atrophy like during sarcopenia or cachexia lead to a decrease in independence and a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. A leading compound in the treatment against ageing and cancer is rapamycin, an inhibitor of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Whether the treatment with mTORC1 inhibitors would work at a cost of losing muscle mass is unclear, as most studies have been focusing on the role of mTORC1 specifically during hypertrophy. In order to answer this question we developed an inducible muscle specific knockout mouse model in which raptor can be ablated during adulthood to eliminate mTORC1 activity. We analysed the muscles after different time points and found that after 3 months the mice showed a fiber shift towards slower fiber types, a loss in oxidative capacity but only very few myopathic features. After 5 months the myopathic features became more apparent, however it did not largely affect the ex vivo muscle force. Surprisingly despite the myopathy we did not see a significant loss of muscle mass even after 5 months, that we hypothesised based on mTORC1s central role in protein synthesis. We assume that the myopathy after long-term mTORC1 inactivation is mostly a result of secondary effects through the loss of mitochondria, alterations in metabolism and in cytoskeletal components. In conclusion, during skeletal muscle maintenance mTORC1 is more essential for metabolic processes than it is for maintaining basal muscle mass.

Project description:Mitochondrial oxidative function is tightly controlled to maintain energy homeostasis in response to nutrient and hormonal signals. An important cellular component in the energy sensing response is the target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase pathway; however whether and how mTOR controls mitochondrial oxidative activity is unknown. Here, we show that mTOR kinase activity stimulates mitochondrial gene expression and oxidative function. In skeletal muscle cells and TSC2-/- MEFs, the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin largely decreased gene expression of mitochondrial transcriptional regulators such as PGC-1alpha and the transcription factors ERRalpha and NRFs. As a consequence, mitochondrial gene expression and oxygen consumption were reduced upon mTOR inhibition. Using computational genomics, we identified the transcription factor YY1 as a common target of mTOR and PGC-1alpha that controls mitochondrial gene expression. Inhibition of mTOR resulted in a failure of YY1 to interact and be coactivated by PGC-1alpha. Notably, knock-down of YY1 in skeletal muscle cells caused a significant decrease in mRNAs of mitochondrial regulators and mitochondrial genes that resulted in a decrease in respiration. Moreover, YY1 was required for rapamycin-dependent repression of mitochondrial genes. Thus, we have identified a novel mechanism in which a nutrient sensor (mTOR) balances energy metabolism via transcriptional control of mitochondrial oxidative function. These results have important implications for our understanding of how these pathways might be altered in metabolic diseases and cancer. Experiment Overall Design: Using Affymetrix MOE430 v2 gene chips, biological triplicates of each condition were analyzed: vehicle-treated, rapamycin-treated, gfp-infected, and pgc-1alpha-infected resulting in a total of 12 samples. Experiment Overall Design: Data were analyzed by RMA (with default settings) in BioConductor 1.2 -- one batch for the Rapamycin vs. Vehicle, and another batch for the PGC vs GFP.

Project description:The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway integrates diverse environmental inputs, including immune signals and metabolic cues, to direct T cell fate decisions1. Activation of mTOR, comprised of mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes, delivers an obligatory signal for proper activation and differentiation of effector CD4+ T cells2,3, whereas in the regulatory T cell (Treg) compartment, the Akt-mTOR axis is widely acknowledged as a crucial negative regulator of Treg de novo differentiation4-8 and population expansion9. However, whether mTOR signaling affects the homeostasis and function of Tregs remains largely unexplored. Here we show that mTORC1 signaling is a pivotal positive determinant of Treg function. Tregs have elevated steady-state mTORC1 activity compared to naïve T cells. Signals via T cell receptor (TCR) and IL-2 provide major inputs for mTORC1 activation, which in turn programs suppressive function of Tregs. Disruption of mTORC1 through Treg-specific deletion of the essential component Raptor leads to a profound loss of Treg suppressive activity in vivo and development of a fatal early-onset inflammatory disorder. Mechanistically, Raptor/mTORC1 signaling in Tregs promotes cholesterol/lipid metabolism, with the mevalonate pathway particularly important for coordinating Treg proliferation and upregulation of suppressive molecules CTLA-4 and ICOS to establish Treg functional competency. In contrast, mTORC1 does not directly impact the expression of Foxp3 or anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines in Tregs, suggesting a non-conventional mechanism for Treg functional regulation. Lastly, we provide evidence that mTORC1 maintains Treg function partly through inhibiting the mTORC2 pathway. Our results demonstrate that mTORC1 acts as a fundamental ‘rheostat’ in Tregs to link immunological signals from TCR and IL-2 to lipogenic pathways and functional fitness, and highlight a central role of metabolic programming of Treg suppressive activity in immune homeostasis and tolerance. We used microarrays to explore the gene expression profiles differentially expressed in regulatory T-cells from wild-type and CD4(cre) x Raptor(fl/fl) mice

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Inducible deletion of Raptor and mTOR from adult skeletal muscle impairs muscle contractility and relaxation

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