TY - JOUR

T1 - Smoking impairs muscle protein synthesis and increases the expression of myostatin and MAFbx in muscle

AU - Petersen, Anne Marie Winther

AU - Magkos, Faidon

AU - Atherton, Philip

AU - Selby, Anna

AU - Smith, Kenneth

AU - Rennie, Michael J

AU - Pedersen, Bente Klarlund

AU - Mittendorfer, Bettina

N1 - (Ekstern)

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - Smoking causes multiple organ dysfunction. The effect of smoking on skeletal muscle protein metabolism is unknown. We hypothesized that the rate of skeletal muscle protein synthesis is depressed in smokers compared with non-smokers. We studied eight smokers (> or =20 cigarettes/day for > or =20 years) and eight non-smokers matched for sex (4 men and 4 women per group), age (65 +/- 3 and 63 +/- 3 yr, respectively; means +/- SEM) and body mass index (25.9 +/- 0.9 and 25.1 +/- 1.2 kg/m2, respectively). Each subject underwent an intravenous infusion of stable isotope-labeled leucine in conjunction with blood and muscle tissue sampling to measure the mixed muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) and whole body leucine rate of appearance (Ra) in plasma (an index of whole body proteolysis), the expression of genes involved in the regulation of muscle mass (myostatin, a muscle growth inhibitor, and MAFBx and MuRF-1, which encode E3 ubiquitin ligases in the proteasome proteolytic pathway) and that for the inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha in muscle, and the concentration of inflammatory markers in plasma (C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, interleukin-6) which are associated with muscle wasting in other conditions. There were no differences between nonsmokers and smokers in plasma leucine concentration, leucine rate of appearance, and plasma concentrations of inflammatory markers, or TNF-alpha mRNA in muscle, but muscle protein FSR was much less (0.037 +/- 0.005 vs. 0.059 +/- 0.005%/h, respectively, P = 0.004), and myostatin and MAFBx (but not MuRF-1) expression were much greater (by approximately 33 and 45%, respectivley, P < 0.05) in the muscle of smokers than of nonsmokers. We conclude that smoking impairs the muscle protein synthesis process and increases the expression of genes associated with impaired muscle maintenance; smoking therefore likely increases the risk of sarcopenia.

AB - Smoking causes multiple organ dysfunction. The effect of smoking on skeletal muscle protein metabolism is unknown. We hypothesized that the rate of skeletal muscle protein synthesis is depressed in smokers compared with non-smokers. We studied eight smokers (> or =20 cigarettes/day for > or =20 years) and eight non-smokers matched for sex (4 men and 4 women per group), age (65 +/- 3 and 63 +/- 3 yr, respectively; means +/- SEM) and body mass index (25.9 +/- 0.9 and 25.1 +/- 1.2 kg/m2, respectively). Each subject underwent an intravenous infusion of stable isotope-labeled leucine in conjunction with blood and muscle tissue sampling to measure the mixed muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) and whole body leucine rate of appearance (Ra) in plasma (an index of whole body proteolysis), the expression of genes involved in the regulation of muscle mass (myostatin, a muscle growth inhibitor, and MAFBx and MuRF-1, which encode E3 ubiquitin ligases in the proteasome proteolytic pathway) and that for the inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha in muscle, and the concentration of inflammatory markers in plasma (C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, interleukin-6) which are associated with muscle wasting in other conditions. There were no differences between nonsmokers and smokers in plasma leucine concentration, leucine rate of appearance, and plasma concentrations of inflammatory markers, or TNF-alpha mRNA in muscle, but muscle protein FSR was much less (0.037 +/- 0.005 vs. 0.059 +/- 0.005%/h, respectively, P = 0.004), and myostatin and MAFBx (but not MuRF-1) expression were much greater (by approximately 33 and 45%, respectivley, P < 0.05) in the muscle of smokers than of nonsmokers. We conclude that smoking impairs the muscle protein synthesis process and increases the expression of genes associated with impaired muscle maintenance; smoking therefore likely increases the risk of sarcopenia.

KW - Aged

KW - Down-Regulation/physiology

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Muscle Proteins/metabolism

KW - Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism

KW - Myostatin

KW - Protein Biosynthesis/physiology

KW - SKP Cullin F-Box Protein Ligases/metabolism

KW - Smoking/metabolism

KW - Transforming Growth Factor beta/metabolism

KW - Muscle growth

KW - Stable-isotope-labeled tracers

KW - Sarcopenia

KW - Protein turnover

U2 - 10.1152/ajpendo.00301.2007

DO - 10.1152/ajpendo.00301.2007

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 17609255

VL - 293

SP - E843-E848

JO - American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism

JF - American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism

SN - 0193-1849

IS - 3

ER -