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RESEARCH PRODUCT

STUDIES ON NORMAL AND DENERVATED SKELETAL MUSCLE CHROMATIN

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Publisher Summary This chapter presents studies on normal and denervated skeletal muscle chromatin. It has been reported that the inhibitors of RNA and protein synthesis can prevent the appearance of some biochemical modifications of muscle, generally induced by denervation. This observation suggests that the gene expression of muscle fiber is under motoneuron control. On the other hand, it is well known that in eukaryotic cells exists a close relationship between chromatin properties and the gene expression. In a study, some properties of normal and 7-days denervated muscle chromatin were investigated to establish whether the changes in protein metabolism in denervated skeletal muscle are accompanied by the modification of chromatin composition and structural organization. The electrophoretic pattern of proteins from purified nuclei and the nucleosomal repeat length have been characterized in normal and denervated muscle. The results obtained on normal tissue shows that the repeat unit size of chromatin in muscle has been calculated to be 189–190 bp. No significant difference is detectable in the repeat unit size of muscle chromatin and the electrophoretic pattern of histone and nonhistone proteins at the early stages of denervation.