肌肉生长抑制素(myostatin,MSTN)属于转化生长因子-β(transforming growth factor-β,TGF-β)超家族,主要功能为负向调节骨骼肌的生长.肌肉生长抑制素基因敲除小鼠肌肉出现显著增加,而将干涉该基因的短发夹RNA注射并电击转化入大鼠胫前肌则引起肌肉重量、肌纤维以及MHCⅡ表达的增加.通过与小鼠肌肉生长抑制素基因表达载体共转染HEK293细胞,筛选到两条能够高效抑制小鼠肌肉生长抑制素基因表达的小干涉RNA.构建了这两条小RNA的表达载体Mst-shRNA1和Mst-shRNA2,用其分别转染小鼠C2C12成肌细胞,并通过G418药物筛选和流式细胞仪富集整合了短发夹RNA表达载体的阳性细胞.通过采用Real-time PCR和Western blot分析,检测到在分别整合了Mst-shRNA1和Mst-shRNA2的C2C12细胞中,内源性肌肉生长抑制素基因的mRNA水平分别下降了10.2%和35.5%,蛋白质表达则分别下降了29.3%和64.7%.同时,在这两组中MyoD的表达上升了24.4%和40.4%,证明通过RNA干涉实现的肌肉生长抑制素基因的抑制导致了下游MyoD基...
Myostatin is a TGF-β superfamily member that negatively regulates the growth of the skeletal muscle mass. Remarkable muscle increase was observed in myostatin-knockout mice. Injection and electroporation of myostatin-targeting shRNA into rat tibialis anterior resulted in an increase in its weight, fiber size, and MHCⅡ expression. Two siRNAs targeting mouse myostatin were identified to block mouse myostatin expression upon co-transfection with a myostatin-expressing plasmid into HEK293 cell culture. These siRNAs were cloned into shRNA expression vectors and transferred into C2C12 myoblasts. ShRNA-positive cells were screened by neomycin selection and flow cytometry. By using real-time PCR, it was determined that the endogenous myostatin mRNA expression decreased by 10.2% and 35.5% in Mst-shRNA1-treated and Mst-shRNA2-treated C2C12 myoblasts, respectively. Western blot analysis indicated that the myostatin protein expression level decreased by 29.3% and 64.7%, respectively, in the two groups. it was also demonstrated that downstream MyoD pathway was affected by myostatin blockade, as evidenced by the 24.4% and 40.4% upregulation of MyoD expression in shRNA-treated cells. The results indicate that myostatin-targeting siRNA produced endogenously could efficiently downregulate myostatin expression. This RNAi-based method of increasing muscle mass could provide an alternative strategy to gene knockout methods for genetic breeding and may be useful in improving the economic properties of livestock.