Proteomic profiling of skeletal muscle plasticity

One of the most striking physiological features of skeletal muscle tissues are their enormous capacity to adapt to changed functional demands. Muscle plasticity has been extensively studied by histological, biochemical, physiological and genetic methods over the last few decades. With the recent emergence of high-throughput and large-scale proteomic techniques, mass spectrometry-based surveys have also been applied to the global analysis of the skeletal muscle protein complement during physiological modifications and pathophysiological alterations. This review outlines and discusses the impact of recent proteomic profiling studies of skeletal muscle transitions, including the effects of chronic electro-stimulation, physical exercise, denervation, disuse atrophy, hypoxia, myotonia, motor neuron disease and age-related fibre type shifting. This includes studies on the human skeletal muscle proteome, animal models of muscle plasticity and major neuromuscular pathologies. The biomedical importance of establishing reliable biomarker signatures for the various molecular and cellular transition phases involved in muscle transformation is critically examined.