Muscle myostatin expression in children with muscle diseases

The demonstration that myostatin may negatively regulate muscle mass in adult individuals has raised the possibility of targeting the myostatin pathway to increase muscle growth in a variety of muscle-degenerative and -wasting conditions. To gain further insight into the possible role of myostatin in primary muscle diseases, the authors investigated the expression of muscle myostatin in children with congenital fiber type 1 disproportion, in others with neurogenic muscular atrophy, in others with myotonia congenita, in others with infantile glycogenosis type II, in others with Prader-Willi syndrome, and in 4 age-matched controls. No differences in the pattern of myostatin expression were found in any case, even in those patients with prominent muscular atrophy or hypertrophy. These findings suggest that muscle alterations that can be observed in primary muscle diseases do not depend on changes in myostatin expression.