Combinatorial and independent effects of exercise and myostatin/activin blocking on muscle gene expression profiling

2013

The administration of soluble ligand binding domain of type IIb activin receptor fused to the Fc domain (sActRIIB-Fc) has been recently shown to attenuate dystrophic pathology and to increase muscle mass, but also to supress aerobic metabolism. In contrast, aerobic exercise is known for promoting aerobic capacity. The aim of the present thesis was to investigate the effects of the combination of myostatin/activin blocking and aerobic exercise on muscle gene expression profile of a in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) model, the mdx mouse. Microarray analysis was conducted from the gastrocnemius muscle and Gene Set Enrichement Analysis (GSEA) was performed to examine the effects of the treat…