Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Giorgio TascaORCiD
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is an autosomal dominant neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by extreme variability in symptoms, with females being less severely affected than males and presenting a higher proportion of asymptomatic carriers. The sex-related factors involved in the disease are not known. Here, we have utilized myoblasts isolated from FSHD patients (FSHD myoblasts) to investigate the effect of estrogens on muscle properties. Our results demonstrated that estrogens counteract the differentiation impairment of FSHD myoblasts without affecting cell proliferation or survival. Estrogen effects are mediated by estrogen receptor ? (ER?), which reduces chromatin occupancy and transcriptional activity of double homeobox 4 (DUX4), a protein whose aberrant expression has been implicated in FSHD pathogenesis. During myoblast differentiation, we observed that the levels and activity of DUX4 increased progressively and were associated with its enhanced recruitment in the nucleus. ER? interfered with this recruitment by relocalizing DUX4 in the cytoplasm. This work identifies estrogens as a potential disease modifier that underlie sex-related differences in FSHD by protecting against myoblast differentiation impairments in this disease.
Author(s): Teveroni E, Pellegrino M, Sacconi S, Calandra P, Cascino I, Farioli-Vecchioli S, Puma A, Garibaldi M, Morosetti R, Tasca G, Ricci E, Trevisan CP, Galluzzi G, Pontecorvi A, Crescenzi M, Deidda G, Moretti F
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation
Year: 2017
Volume: 127
Issue: 4
Pages: 1531-1545
Print publication date: 03/04/2017
Online publication date: 03/03/2017
Acceptance date: 12/01/2017
ISSN (print): 0021-9738
ISSN (electronic): 1558-8238
Publisher: American Society for Clinical Investigation
URL: https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI89401
DOI: 10.1172/JCI89401
PubMed id: 28263188
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
