Using the skeletal muscle cell differentiation model, we showed that the new assay displays low background activity, a 2-log dynamic range, high sensitivity and is amenable to the investigation of cell fusion kinetics.
Microarray findings revealed the activation of gene groups that function in smooth muscle differentiation, signaling pathways, extracellular modeling and cell proliferation.
Oncogenic activation of the Ras-MAPK pathway, instead, inhibits muscle differentiation in most cell models studied, whereas inhibition of endogenous MEK usually favors differentiation [16], [17].
MyomiRs are expressed during somite myogenesis and during muscle differentiation in cell culture models [ 52– 55] and in developing embryos [ 49, 56, 57].
Taken together, our results move the molecular analysis of muscle differentiation on from a simple model in which the key events are expression of pivotal positive regulators, for example Mef2.
The lentivirus vector-based conditional gene expression assay was validated in primary human mesenchymal stem cells and in a differentiation model based on muscle progenitor cells from a Duchenne muscular dystrophy patient using reporter genes compatible with live- and single-cell imaging and with whole population measurements.
Although some miRNAs have been shown to exert a disruptive effect on skeletal muscle differentiation at least in cell culture models [ 70], in most cases, it remains to be established whether the changes in miRNA expression levels are causally involved in these diseases or are secondary to the degeneration/regeneration response of the affected muscle tissue.
The C2C12 cell line, a myoblast cell line derived from murine satellite cells, is used extensively as an in vitro model to study both muscle differentiation and hypertrophy [ 14].
This suggests a model in which Dlk1 facilitates muscle differentiation through dampening of Notch signaling.
This type of stimulation by RA has also been reported in a pancreatic and a neuroblastoma cell line model as well as during smooth muscle differentiation [ 14, 35, 36].
