Sciorati Clara, Touvier Thierry, Buono Roberta, Pessina Patrizia, François Stephanie, Perrotta Cristiana, Meneveri Raffaella, Clementi Emilio, Brunelli Silvia
Division of Regenerative Medicine, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy.
J Cell Sci. 2009 Apr 15;122(Pt 8):1119-25. doi: 10.1242/jcs.041665.
Skeletal muscles of subjects with advanced cancer undergo progressive wasting, referred to as cachexia. Cachexia is an important area for medical research because strategies proposed until now have yielded little benefit. We have recently identified necdin as a key player in fetal and postnatal physiological myogenesis and in muscle regeneration. Here we show that necdin is selectively expressed in muscles of cachetic mice and prove that its expression is causally linked to a protective response of the tissue against tumor-induced wasting, inhibition of myogenic differentiation and fiber regeneration. Necdin carries out this role mainly via interference with TNFalpha signaling at various levels, including regulation of expression of TNFR1 and p53, and regulation of the activity of caspase 3 and caspase 9. These data suggest that inhibition of muscle wasting using necdin is a feasible approach to treat cachexia in neoplastic patients.
