In order to investigate the biological function of transforming growth factor-β1（TGF-β1） during fibrosis in denervated skeletal muscle,we recruited sciatic nerve injury model of SD rats in which denervated gastrocnemius was isolated for analysis.At different time points after operation,denervated muscle was examined by several methods.Masson trichrome staining showed morphological changes of denervated skeletal muscle.Quantitative RT-PCR detected the rapid increase of TGF-β1 expression at mRNA level after nerve injury.It was found that a peak of TGF-β1 mRNA expression appeared one week post-operation.The expression of collagen Ⅰ（COL Ⅰ） mRNA was up-regulated in the nerve injury model as well,and reached highest level two weeks post-injury.Immunoblot revealed similar expression pattern of TGF-β1 and COL Ⅰ in denervated muscles at protein level.In addition,we found that the area of the gastrocnemius muscle fiber was decreased gradually along with increased interstitital fibrosis.Interestingly,this pathological change could be prevented,at least partly,by local injection of TGF-β1 antibodies,which could be contributed to the reduced production of COL Ⅰ by inhibiting function of TGF-β1.Taken together,in this study,we demonstrated that the expression of TGF-β1 was increased significantly in denervated skeletal muscle,which might play a crucial role during muscle fibrosis after nerve transection.
The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of deposition of extracellular matrix induced by TGF-β1 in skeletal muscle-derived stem cells （MDSCs）. Rat skeletal MDSCs were obtained by using preplate technique, and divided into four groups： group A （control group）, group B （treated with TGF-β1, 10 ng/rnL）, group C （treated with TGF-β1 and anti-connective tissue growth factor （CTGF）, both in 10 ng/mL）, and group D （treated with anti-CTGF, 10 ng/mL）. The expression of CTGF, collagen type- I （COL- I ） and collagen type-III （COL-III） in MDSCs was examined by using RT-PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescent stain. It was found that one day after TGF-β1 treatment, the expression of CTGF, COL- I and COL-Ⅲ was increased dramatically. CTGF expression reached the peak on the day 2, and then decreased rapidly to a level of control group on the day 5. COL- I and COL-Ⅲ mRNA levels were overexpresed on the day 2 and 3 respectively, while their protein expression levels were up-regulated on the day 2 and reached the peak on the day 7. In group C, anti-CTGF could partly suppress the overexpression of COL-I and COL-Ill induced by TGF-131 one day after adding CTGF antibody. It was concluded that TGF-β1 could induce MDSCs to express CTGF, and promote the production of COL- I and COL-III. In contrast, CTGF antibody could partially inhibit the effect of TGF-β1 on the MDSCs by reducing the expression of COL- I and COL-III. Taken together, we demonstrated that TGF-β1-CTGF signaling played a crucial role in MDSCs synthesizing collagen proteins in vitro, which provided theoretical basis for exploring the methods postponing skeletal muscle fibrosis after nerve injury.
