Authors: Yahi, Hakima; Philipot, Ophélie; Guasconi, Valentina; Fritsch, Lauriane; Ait-Si-Ali, Slimane

Source: Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, Volume 10, Number 6, December 2006 , pp. 923-934(12)

Publisher: Informa Healthcare

Abstract:

Skeletal muscle differentiation is a multistep process, which begins with the commitment of multi-potent mesodermal precursor cells to the muscle fate. These committed cells, the myoblasts, then differentiate and fuse into multinucleated myotubes. The final step of muscle differentiation is the maturation of differentiated myotubes into myofibres. Skeletal muscle development requires the coordinated expression of various transcription factors like the members of the myocyte enhancer binding-factor 2 family and the muscle regulatory factors. These transcription factors, in collaboration with chromatin-remodelling complexes, act in specific combinations and within complex transcriptional regulatory networks to achieve skeletal myogenesis. Additional factors involved in the epigenetic regulation of this process continue to be discovered. In this review, the authors discuss the recent discoveries in the epigenetic regulation of myogenesis. They also summarise the role of chromatin-modifying enzymes regulating muscle gene expression. These different factors are often involved in multiple steps of muscle differentiation and have redundant activities. Altogether, the recent findings have allowed a better understanding of myogenesis and have raised new hopes for the pharmacological development of new therapies aimed at muscle degeneration diseases, such as myotonic dystrophy or Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Keywords: chromatin remodelling; differentiation; skeletal muscle

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1517/14728222.10.6.923

Affiliations: 1: Institut André Lwoff, Laboratoire `Epigénétique et Cancer', FRE 2944, CNRS, 7 rue Guy Moquet, 94800 Villejuif, France., Email: aitsiali@vjf.cnrs.fr

Publication date: 2006-12-01

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