• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.401-405
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• 2002

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of caponization on the growth performance, breast and thigh muscles physical properties and fiber diameter of the Pectoralis major and Gastrocnemius pars externa in Taiwan country chicken cockerels. Caponized birds were surgically altered at 10 weeks of age. Birds were fed grower and finisher diets ad libitum during an eighteen-week experimental period. The results indicated that the live weight and feed intake in the capons were significantly (p<0.05) higher and the shank length was significantly (p<0.05) longer than in intact birds. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences in feed conversion and mortality between two treatments at 28 weeks of age. Compared with intact birds, the capons had greater (p<0.05) tenderness in the breast and thigh muscles. Cohesion of the breast muscle in the capons was significantly (p<0.05) better than in the intact birds, but the thigh muscles were not significantly (p>0.05) affected. No treatment differences (p>0.05) were associated with cooking loss, muscle chewiness, and elasticity. The capons had a significantly (p<0.05) smaller fiber diameter in the Pectoralis major, but were not significantly (p>0.05) different in the fiber diameter of the Gastrocnemius pars externa. It is concluded that castration did not depress growth compared with the intact birds, but did improve muscle tenderness. This difference was most pronounced in the thigh muscles.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.7.1-7.6
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• 2017

A feeding trial was designed to assess the effects of dietary protein and lipid content on growth, feed utilization efficiency, and muscle proximate composition of juvenile mandarin fish, Siniperca scherzeri. Six experimental diets were formulated with a combination of three protein (35, 45, and 55%) and two dietary lipid levels (7 and 14%). Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish ($8.3{\pm}0.1g$) to apparent satiation for 8 weeks. The results showed that growth performance in terms of weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) increased with increasing dietary protein level from 35 to 55% at the same dietary lipid level. At the same dietary lipid content, WG and SGR obtained with diets containing 55% protein was significantly higher than those obtained with diets containing 45 and 35% protein. No significant effect on growth rate was found when the dietary level of lipid was increased from 7 to 14%. While the levels of protein and lipid in the diets had no significant effect on feed intake, other nutrient utilization efficiency parameters including daily protein intake (DPI), feed efficiency (FE), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) showed a similar trend to that of growth rates, with the highest values obtained with diets containing 55% protein. Muscle chemical composition was not significantly affected by the different dietary treatments for each dietary lipid or protein level tested. These findings may suggest that a practical diet containing 55% protein and 7% lipid provides sufficient nutrient and energy to support the acceptable growth rates and nutrient utilization of mandarin fish juveniles.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.874-880
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• 1996

The effects of an anabolic steroid, nandrolone phenylpropionate(NPP), on body weight gain and body protein, and muscle protein metabolism were inestigated in adrenocorticotrophic hormone(ACTH)-treated male and female rats. Daily injections of 100ug/day of ACTH for 7-8 days caused a cessation of growth in females and a net loss of body weight in males which were associated with significant reductions in body protein content. However, food intake was not affected by ACTH in either sex. The weight, protein content and fractional rate of protein synthesis, measured in vivo, of gastrocnemius muscle were all significantly reduced in both sexes. NPP at a dose of 4mg/kg body weight prevented the reduction in body weight gain in ACTH-treate females but not in males. However, boy protein content was increased by NPP in both sexes which was associated with increases in the weight, protein content and fractional rate of protein synthesis of gastrocnemius muscle. ACTH treatment caused a marked increase in plasma concentrations of corticosterone in both sexes. NPP suppressed much of the increases in corticosterone concentrations in both sexes. The results of the present study suggest that NPP exerts at least part of its anabolic effect by reducing plasma concentrations of catabolic glucocorticoid hormones, through suppressing the response of the adrenals to ACTH.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.550-554
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• 2013

The platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) signaling pathway is essential for inducing a dedifferentiated state of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Activation of PDGF inhibits smooth muscle cell (SMC)-specific gene expression and increases the rate of proliferation and migration, leading to dedifferentiation of VSMCs. Recently, microRNAs have been shown to play a critical role in the modulation of the VSMC phenotype in response to extracellular signals. However, little is known about microRNAs regulated by PDGF in VSMCs. Herein, we identify microRNA- 15b (miR-15b) as a mediator of VSMC phenotype regulation upon PDGF signaling. We demonstrate that miR-15b is induced by PDGF in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and is critical for PDGF-mediated repression of SMC-specific genes. In addition, we show that miR-15b promotes cell proliferation. These results indicate that PDGF signaling regulates SMC-specific gene expression and cell proliferation by modulating the expression of miR-15b to induce a dedifferentiated state in the VSMCs.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2007

Myostatin (MSTN; also known as GDF8) is a member of the transforming growth factor ${\beta}-superfamily$ of proteins. MSTN negatively regulates mammalian skeletal muscle growth and development by inhibiting myoblast proliferation. Mice and cattle possessing mutant MSTN alleles display a 'double muscling' phenotype characterized by extreme skeletal muscle hypertrophy and/or hyperplasia. We isolated the full-length cDNA of a novel MSTN gene from S. schlegeli muscle tissue and examined its expression pattern in various tissues. The full-length gene (GenBank DQ423474) consists of 1941bp with an open reading frame of 1134 bp, encoding 377 amino acids that show 62-92% amino acid similarity to other vertebrate MSTNs. The predicted protein contains a conserved proteolytic cleavage site (RXRR) and nine conserved cysteine residues at the C terminus. RT-PCR revealed that the unprocessed and prodomain myostatin mRNAs were predominantly present in muscle, with limited expression in other tissues. However, the mature myostatin mRNA was highly expressed in brain and muscle, intermediately expressed in the gills, intestine, heart, and kidney, and weakly expressed in the liver and spleen.

• Osteoporosis and Sarcopenia
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.140-155
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• 2016

Sex steroids influence the maintenance and growth of muscles. Decline in androgens, estrogens and progesterone by aging leads to the loss of muscular function and mass, sarcopenia. These steroid hormones can interact with different signaling pathways through their receptors. To date, sex steroid hormone receptors and their exact roles are not completely defined in skeletal and smooth muscles. Although numerous studies focused on the effects of sex steroid hormones on different types of cells, still many unexplained molecular mechanisms in both skeletal and smooth muscle cells remain to be investigated. In this paper, many different molecular mechanisms that are activated or inhibited by sex steroids and those that influence the growth, proliferation, and differentiation of skeletal and smooth muscle cells are reviewed. Also, the similarities of cellular and molecular pathways of androgens, estrogens and progesterone in both skeletal and smooth muscle cells are highlighted. The reviewed signaling pathways and participating molecules can be targeted in the future development of novel therapeutics.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2023

Ziziphus jujuba Mill. (ZJM), a traditional folk medicine and functional food in South Korea and China, has been reported to having pharmacological activities against anti-cancer, anti-oxidative, and anti-obesity. However, the effect of ZJM related to myoblast differentiation has not been known. In this study, we investigated the effects and mechanism of ZJM on myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells. ZJM promotes myogenic differentiation and elevates the formation of multinucleated myotube compared to the control group. ZJM significantly increased the mRNA and protein expression of MyHC1, myogenin and MyoD in dose- and time-dependent manner. Interestingly, ZJM significantly inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of protein degradation markers, atrogin-1 and MuRF-1, in dose- and time-dependent manner. Taken together, our data suggest that ZJM is a potential functional candidate for muscle growth and strength by promoting myogenic differentiation.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.187-193
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• 2006

Background : Normal cell proliferation and viability is strongly depends on the availability of metabolic energy and the maintenance of the appropriate adenylate-nucleotide pools. Hypothetically, changes in adenylate kinase (AK) expression could therefore be associated with adaptation to altered growth characteristics or inversely altered growth characteristics of proliferating cells could drive the changes in the metabolic profile. This study investigated whether the expression of either AK1 or a Mycobacterium tuberculosis adenylate kinase mutant which has the same catalytic activity of AK1 could affect the growth rate of slow-growing BCG. Method : Recombinant BCGs, which were cloned the human muscle-type adenylate kinase synthetic gene (AK1) and adenylate kinase mutation gene (AKmtDM) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into the Mycobacterium/E.coli expression vectors, were constructed. Recombinant BCGs and wild-type BCG were cultured in 7H9 media and the optical density at 600nm was measured at intervals of 2-3 days. Result : There wasn't the growth rate change induced by AK1 or AKmtDM expression in recombinant BCGs. Conclusion : The expression of AK1 or Mycobacterium tuberculosis adenylate kinase mutant in BCG does not affect the growth rate of BCG.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1512-1523
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• 2022

Objective: The growth of pigs involves multiple regulatory mechanisms, and modern molecular breeding techniques can be used to understand the skeletal muscle growth and development to promote the selection process of pigs. This study aims to explore candidate lncRNAs and mRNAs related to skeletal muscle growth and development among Duroc pigs with different average daily gain (ADG). Methods: A total of 8 pigs were selected and divided into two groups: H group (high-ADG) and L group (low-ADG). And followed by whole transcriptome sequencing to identify differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and mRNAs. Results: In RNA-seq, 703 DE mRNAs (263 up-regulated and 440 down-regulated) and 74 DE lncRNAs (45 up-regulated and 29 down-regulated) were identified. In addition, 1,418 Transcription factors (TFs) were found. Compared with mRNAs, lncRNAs had fewer exons, shorter transcript length and open reading frame length. DE mRNAs and DE lncRNAs can form 417 lncRNA-mRNA pairs (antisense, cis and trans). DE mRNAs and target genes of lncRNAs were enriched in cellular processes, biological regulation, and regulation of biological processes. In addition, quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was used to detect the functions of DE mRNAs and lncRNAs, the most of DE mRNAs and target genes of lncRNAs were enriched in QTLs related to growth traits and skeletal muscle development. In single-nucleotide polymorphism/insertion-deletion (SNP/INDEL) analysis, 1,081,182 SNP and 131,721 INDEL were found, and transition was more than transversion. Over 60% of percentage were skipped exon events among alternative splicing events. Conclusion: The results showed that different ADG among Duroc pigs with the same diet maybe due to the DE mRNAs and DE lncRNAs related to skeletal muscle growth and development.