ArticleThe Journal of clinical investigation2008
In vivo time-lapse microscopy reveals no loss of murine myonuclei during weeks of muscle atrophy.
Article in The Journal of clinical investigation, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 166 citations in OpenAlex.
- Myonuclear permanence in skeletal muscle memory: a systematic review and meta-analysis of human and animal studies.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2022Pooled it
- Low-load blood flow-restricted resistance exercise produces fiber type-independent hypertrophy and improves muscle functional capacity in older individuals.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2023Trial
- Countering disuse atrophy in older adults with low-volume leucine supplementation.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2020Trial
- Epigenetic Skeletal Muscle Memory: The Impact of Physical Activity on Aging and Post-Injury Regeneration.Genes · 2026Review
- ACL injury reprograms quadriceps myonuclear epigenetic and transcriptional signatures in mice.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Myonuclear loss, rather than senescent myonuclei, associates with fiber type-specific atrophy in aging human skeletal muscle.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The transcriptomic signature of age and sex is not conserved in human primary myotubes.Skeletal muscle · 2026Article
- Loss of Myonuclei and Transcriptional Activity During Diaphragm Atrophy in Critically Ill Patients.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2026Article
- FRET-Based Sensor Zebrafish Reveal Muscle Cells Do Not Undergo Apoptosis in Starvation or Natural Aging-Induced Muscle Atrophy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Skeletal muscle memory: implications for sports, aging and nutrition.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Myonuclear and satellite cell content of the vastus lateralis and soleus with 70 days of simulated microgravity and the NASA SPRINT exercise program.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2025Article
- RhoA-mediated GCell discovery · 2024Article
- Maintenance of subsynaptic myonuclei number is not driven by neural input.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Motoneurons innervation determines the distinct gene expressions in multinucleated myofibers.Cell & bioscience · 2022Article
- Decoding the transcriptome of denervated muscle at single-nucleus resolution.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2022Article
- Involvement of muscle satellite cell dysfunction in neuromuscular disorders: Expanding the portfolio of satellite cell-opathies.European journal of translational myology · 2022Article
- Changes of Gene Expression Patterns of Muscle Pathophysiology-Related Transcription Factors During Denervated Muscle Atrophy.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Comparing the epigenetic landscape in myonuclei purified with a PCM1 antibody from a fast/glycolytic and a slow/oxidative muscle.PLoS genetics · 2021Article
- Myonuclear content and domain size in small versus larger muscle fibres in response to 12 weeks of resistance exercise training in older adults.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Myonuclear content regulates cell size with similar scaling properties in mice and humans.Nature communications · 2020Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Numerous studies have suggested that muscle atrophy is accompanied by apoptotic loss of myonuclei and therefore recovery would require replenishment by muscle stem cells. We used in vivo time-lapse microscopy to observe the loss and replenishment of myonuclei in murine muscle fibers following induced muscle atrophy. To our surprise, imaging of single fibers for up to 28 days did not support the concept of nuclear loss during atrophy. Muscles were inactivated by denervation, nerve impulse block, or mechanical unloading. Nuclei were stained in vivo either acutely by intracellular injection of fluorescent oligonucleotides or in time-lapse studies after transfection with a plasmid encoding GFP with a nuclear localization signal. We observed no loss of myonuclei in fast- or slow-twitch muscle fibers despite a greater than 50% reduction in fiber cross-sectional area. TUNEL labeling of fragmented DNA on histological sections revealed high levels of apoptotic nuclei in inactive muscles. However, when costained for laminin and dystrophin, virtually none of the TUNEL-positive nuclei could be classified as myonuclei; apoptosis was confined to stromal and satellite cells. We conclude that disuse atrophy is not a degenerative process, but is rather a change in the balance between protein synthesis and proteolysis in a permanent cell syncytium.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.