Expression of miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 increases during development of human skeletal muscle

Andrie Koutsoulidou,Nikolaos P Mastroyiannopoulos,Leonidas A Phylactou,Denis Furling,James B Uney

doi:10.1186/1471-213x-11-34

Abstract

BackgroundMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression and have been shown to play an important role during development. miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are expressed in muscle tissue and induced during muscle cell differentiation, a process that directs myoblasts to differentiate into mature myotubes, which are organized into myofibers. Although miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are well-studied in muscle, there is no information about their expression and function during human development. The purpose of this study was to determine the profile of these miRNAs in muscle cells isolated from different stages of human development.ResultsWe examined the levels of miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 during the development of human foetus. All four miRNA levels were found increased during late stages of human foetal muscle development. Increases in the expression levels of these miRNAs were proportional to the capacity of myoblasts to form myotubes. Changes in miRNA levels during human foetal development were accompanied by endogenous alterations in their known targets and also in their inducer, MyoD. Ectopic MyoD expression caused an induction of muscle cell differentiation in vitro, accompanied by an increase in the levels of miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206.ConclusionsThis study provides data about the profile of four miRNAs in human muscle cells isolated during different stages of foetal development. These results may shed light on the differentiation of muscle cells and regulation of muscle formation through miRNAs, during the development of human foetus.

Highlights

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression and have been shown to play an important role during development. miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are expressed in muscle tissue and induced during muscle cell differentiation, a process that directs myoblasts to differentiate into mature myotubes, which are organized into myofibers
Human myoblasts from later stages of development have an increased capacity to differentiate there are many reports regarding human muscle development, there is limited information about the capacity of isolated myoblasts to differentiate in vitro into mature myotubes during different stages of muscle foetal development [18]
The capacity of myoblasts, isolated from different stages of the development of human foetus to differentiate into myotubes was first examined

Summary

Introduction

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression and have been shown to play an important role during development. miR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are expressed in muscle tissue and induced during muscle cell differentiation, a process that directs myoblasts to differentiate into mature myotubes, which are organized into myofibers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression and have been shown to play an important role during development. MiR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are expressed in muscle tissue and induced during muscle cell differentiation, a process that directs myoblasts to differentiate into mature myotubes, which are organized into myofibers. MiR-1, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-206 are well-studied in muscle, there is no information about their expression and function during human development. The purpose of this study was to determine the profile of these miRNAs in muscle cells isolated from different stages of human development. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (~22 nucleotides) noncoding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level [1,2]. Skeletal myogenesis is a complex and tightly regulated developmental process that directs myoblasts to differentiate into mature myotubes. During the late stages of embryogenesis, a specialized population of myogenic stem cells, termed satellite cells, arise in order to provide most of the myonuclei to adult muscles during the postnatal growth of muscle tissue [8]

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