University researchers recently came closer to understanding how a tissue necessary for survival develops. It turns out that cells have to be in the right place at the right time.
University researchers found the link between what was known about the regulation of the initial steps of muscle formation and the actual differentiation of muscle cells, said Monte Westerfield, the lead author of the study. Researchers discovered how the timing of development is regulated by using zebrafish embryos.
“As cells divide during early development, they have to at some point become different from one another,” Westerfield said. “That has to occur in a given cell at the right time.”
He helped find a key element that regulates the timing of muscle development – a gene called Smarcd3. The gene aligns with two other genes to start myogenesis – the formation of muscular tissue during embryonic development.
The research is another step in understanding how muscle develops in vertebrates. The researchers don’t know if the study is applicable to mammals, but it does provide a better understanding of muscle development.
The National Institutes of Health funded the study, which was published on the Web site of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Former research associates Haruki Ochi and Stefan Hans, who worked in Westerfield’s lab, were involved in the study, but they recently left to work in labs in Japan and Germany.
Amanda Boyce, the program director for Muscle Development and Physiology in Bethesda, Md., said the research caught her eye because it mentioned MyoD, which helps regulate muscle differentiation.
“It’s sort of the gold standard of muscle,” Boyce said. “It means muscle’s being made, and anything that’s looking at what turns it on is of interest because no one really knows. This was a blank spot, and he really filled in that spot.”
Boyce said the development of muscles first must be understood better. Once muscle development is understood, researchers can then look at regeneration.
Boyce said using zebrafish provides a “powerful genetic model.”
It’s unknown if the same model can be applied to mammals.
“We haven’t looked to see if it’s relevant in human muscles,” Westerfield said.
The next logical step, Westerfield said, would be running experiments on mice. No research is currently planned, though.
“My guess is that there may be follow-up experiments in the future to see whether or not the same mechanisms apply to mammals,” Westerfield said.
Boyce said she would like to see more research on the topic.
“I have two questions: Is this true for mammalians, and what turns on Smarcd3? We need to follow this backwards up the chain,” Boyce said.
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