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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 283, Issue 28, 19371-19378, July 11, 2008

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Myostatin Directly Regulates Skeletal Muscle Fibrosis^*

From the Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21287

Skeletal muscle fibrosis is a major pathological hallmark of chronic myopathies in which myofibers are replaced by progressive deposition of collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins produced by muscle fibroblasts. Recent studies have shown that in the absence of the endogenous muscle growth regulator myostatin, regeneration of muscle is enhanced, and muscle fibrosis is correspondingly reduced. We now demonstrate that myostatin not only regulates the growth of myocytes but also directly regulates muscle fibroblasts. Our results show that myostatin stimulates the proliferation of muscle fibroblasts and the production of extracellular matrix proteins both in vitro and in vivo. Further, muscle fibroblasts express myostatin and its putative receptor activin receptor IIB. Proliferation of muscle fibroblasts, induced by myostatin, involves the activation of Smad, p38 MAPK and Akt pathways. These results expand our understanding of the function of myostatin in muscle tissue and provide a potential target for anti-fibrotic therapies.

Received for publication, April 3, 2008 , and in revised form, April 28, 2008.

^* This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grant U54AR052646. This work was also supported by Muscular Dystrophy Association Grant 69566 (to K. R. W.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Figs. S1–S4.

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Meyer 5-119, 600 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21287. Fax: 410-614-9003; E-mail: kwagner{at}jhmi.edu.

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