Exogenous hepatocyte growth factor inhibits myoblast differentiation by inducing myf5 expression and suppressing myoD expression in an organ culture system of embryonic mouse tongue.

We examined the effects of exogenous hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on the differentiation and proliferation of tongue myoblasts by using an organ culture system of tongue obtained from mouse embryos at embryonic day (E) 13. Exogenous HGF induced reductions in the quantities of muscle creatine kinase and myogenin mRNAs and in the number of fast myosin heavy chain-positive myoblasts and myotubes, suggesting that HGF suppressed the differentiation of myoblasts in the cultured E13 tongues. Exogenous HGF induced no significant changes in the percentage of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-positive cell nuclei to total cell nuclei (labeling index) in the muscle portion of the cultured E13 tongue, suggesting that HGF did not affect the proliferation of myoblasts. Exogenous HGF induced the expression of myf5 mRNA but inhibited the expression of myoD mRNA. Since mouse tongue myoblasts are reported to complete proliferation by E13, it appears that exogenous HGF arrests myoblasts in the cell cycle and does not allow them to enter the differentiation process. This is achieved by controlling the expression of myf5 and myoD mRNAs, thus inhibiting the differentiation of tongue myoblasts.