School of Public Health

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

Note: Prior to July 1, 2007, the School of Public Health was named the College of Health & Human Performance.

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    Calcium dysregulation, functional calpainopathy, and endoplasmic reticulum stress in sporadic inclusion body myositis
    (Springer Nature, 2017-03-22) Amici, David R.; Pinal-Fernandez, Iago; Mázala, Davi A. G.; Lloyd, Thomas E.; Corse, Andrea M.; Christopher-Stine, Lisa; Mammen, Andrew L.; Chin, Eva R.
    Sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) is the most common primary myopathy in the elderly, but its pathoetiology is still unclear. Perturbed myocellular calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis can exacerbate many of the factors proposed to mediate muscle degeneration in IBM, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, protein aggregation, and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Ca2+ dysregulation may plausibly be initiated in IBM by immune-mediated membrane damage and/or abnormally accumulating proteins, but no studies to date have investigated Ca2+ regulation in IBM patients. We first investigated protein expression via immunoblot in muscle biopsies from IBM, dermatomyositis, and non-myositis control patients, identifying several differentially expressed Ca2+-regulatory proteins in IBM. Next, we investigated the Ca2+-signaling transcriptome by RNA-seq, finding 54 of 183 (29.5%) genes from an unbiased list differentially expressed in IBM vs. controls. Using an established statistical approach to relate genes with causal transcription networks, Ca2+ abundance was considered a significant upstream regulator of observed whole-transcriptome changes. Post-hoc analyses of Ca2+-regulatory mRNA and protein data indicated a lower protein to transcript ratio in IBM vs. controls, which we hypothesized may relate to increased Ca2+-dependent proteolysis and decreased protein translation. Supporting this hypothesis, we observed robust (4-fold) elevation in the autolytic activation of a Ca2+-activated protease, calpain-1, as well as increased signaling for translational attenuation (eIF2α phosphorylation) downstream of the unfolded protein response. Finally, in IBM samples we observed mRNA and protein under-expression of calpain-3, the skeletal muscle-specific calpain, which broadly supports proper Ca2+ homeostasis. Together, these data provide novel insight into mechanisms by which intracellular Ca2+ regulation is perturbed in IBM and offer evidence of pathological downstream effects.
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    Defects in sarcolemma repair and skeletal muscle function after injury in a mouse model of Niemann-Pick type A/B disease
    (Springer Nature, 2019-01-05) Michailowsky, V.; Li, H.; Mittra, B.; Iyer, S. R.; Mazála, D. A. G.; Corrotte, M.; Wang, Y.; Chin, E. R.; Lovering, R. M.; Andrews, N. W.
    Niemann-Pick disease type A (NPDA), a disease caused by mutations in acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), involves severe neurodegeneration and early death. Intracellular lipid accumulation and plasma membrane alterations are implicated in the pathology. ASM is also linked to the mechanism of plasma membrane repair, so we investigated the impact of ASM deficiency in skeletal muscle, a tissue that undergoes frequent cycles of injury and repair in vivo. Utilizing the NPDA/B mouse model ASM−/− and wild type (WT) littermates, we performed excitation-contraction coupling/Ca2+ mobilization and sarcolemma injury/repair assays with isolated flexor digitorum brevis fibers, proteomic analyses with quadriceps femoris, flexor digitorum brevis, and tibialis posterior muscle and in vivo tests of the contractile force (maximal isometric torque) of the quadriceps femoris muscle before and after eccentric contraction-induced muscle injury. ASM−/− flexor digitorum brevis fibers showed impaired excitation-contraction coupling compared to WT, a defect expressed as reduced tetanic [Ca2+]i in response to electrical stimulation and early failure in sustaining [Ca2+]i during repeated tetanic contractions. When injured mechanically by needle passage, ASM−/− flexor digitorum brevis fibers showed susceptibility to injury similar to WT, but a reduced ability to reseal the sarcolemma. Proteomic analyses revealed changes in a small group of skeletal muscle proteins as a consequence of ASM deficiency, with downregulation of calsequestrin occurring in the three different muscles analyzed. In vivo, the loss in maximal isometric torque of WT quadriceps femoris was similar immediately after and 2 min after injury. The loss in ASM−/− mice immediately after injury was similar to WT, but was markedly larger at 2 min after injury. Skeletal muscle fibers from ASM−/− mice have an impairment in intracellular Ca2+ handling that results in reduced Ca2+ mobilization and a more rapid decline in peak Ca2+ transients during repeated contraction-relaxation cycles. Isolated fibers show reduced ability to repair damage to the sarcolemma, and this is associated with an exaggerated deficit in force during recovery from an in vivo eccentric contraction-induced muscle injury. Our findings uncover the possibility that skeletal muscle functional defects may play a role in the pathology of NPDA/B disease.