Jeong Juseong, Park Choon-Ho, Kim Inbo, Kim Young-Ho, Yoon Jae-Min, Kim Kwang-Soo, Kim Jong-Bae
School of Life Science, Handong Global University, Pohang, 37544, Korea.
Mistle Biotech Co., Ltd., Pohang, 37668, Korea.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2017 Jan 21;17(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s12906-017-1575-9.
Korean mistletoe (Viscum album coloratum) is a semi-parasitic plant that grows on various trees and has a diverse range of effects on biological functions, being implicated in having anti-tumor, immunostimulatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-obesity properties. Recently, we also reported that Korean mistletoe extract (KME) improves endurance exercise in mice, suggesting its beneficial roles in enhancing the capacity of skeletal muscle.
We examined the expression pattern of several genes concerned with muscle physiology in C2C12 myotubes cells to identify whether KME inhibits muscle atrophy or promotes muscle hypertrophy. We also investigated these effects of KME in denervated mice model.
Interestingly, KME induced the mRNA expression of SREBP-1c, PGC-1α, and GLUT4, known positive regulators of muscle hypertrophy, in C2C12 cells. On the contrary, KME reduced the expression of Atrogin-1, which is directly involved in the induction of muscle atrophy. In animal models, KME mitigated the decrease of muscle weight in denervated mice. The expression of Atrogin-1 was also diminished in those mice. Moreover, KME enhanced the grip strength and muscle weight in long-term feeding mice.
Our results suggest that KME has beneficial effects on muscle atrophy and muscle hypertrophy.
韩国槲寄生（白果槲寄生）是一种半寄生植物，生长在各种树木上，对生物功能有多种影响，具有抗肿瘤、免疫刺激、抗糖尿病和抗肥胖特性。最近，我们还报道了韩国槲寄生提取物（KME）可改善小鼠的耐力运动，表明其在增强骨骼肌能力方面具有有益作用。
我们检测了C2C12肌管细胞中几种与肌肉生理学相关基因的表达模式，以确定KME是否抑制肌肉萎缩或促进肌肉肥大。我们还在去神经支配的小鼠模型中研究了KME的这些作用。
有趣的是，KME在C2C12细胞中诱导了SREBP-1c、PGC-1α和GLUT4的mRNA表达，这些都是已知的肌肉肥大正调控因子。相反，KME降低了直接参与肌肉萎缩诱导的Atrogin-1的表达。在动物模型中，KME减轻了去神经支配小鼠肌肉重量的下降。这些小鼠中Atrogin-1的表达也减少。此外，KME增强了长期喂养小鼠的握力和肌肉重量。
我们的结果表明，KME对肌肉萎缩和肌肉肥大具有有益作用。
