Expression of the utrophin gene during myogenic differentiation

The process of myogenic differentiation is known to be accompanied by large increases ( approximately 10-fold) in the expression of genes encoding cytoskeletal and membrane proteins including dystrophin and the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) subunits, via the effects of transcription factors belonging to the MyoD family. Since in skeletal muscle (i) utrophin is a synaptic homolog to dystrophin, and (ii) the utrophin promoter contains an E-box, we examined, in the present study, expression of the utrophin gene during myogenic differentiation using the mouse C2 muscle cell line. We observed that in comparison to myoblasts, the levels of utrophin and its transcript were approximately 2-fold higher in differentiated myotubes. In order to address whether a greater rate of transcription contributed to the elevated levels of utrophin transcripts, we performed nuclear run-on assays. In these studies we determined that the rate of transcription of the utrophin gene was approximately 2-fold greater in myotubes as compared to myoblasts. Finally, we examined the stability of utrophin mRNAs in muscle cultures by two separate methods: following transcription blockade with actinomycin D and by pulse-chase experiments. Under these conditions, we determined that the half-life of utrophin mRNAs in myoblasts was approximately 20 h and that it remained largely unaffected during myogenic differentiation. Altogether, these results show that in comparison to other synaptic proteins and to dystrophin, expression of the utrophin gene is only moderately increased during myogenic differentiation.