The transcriptomic signature of myostatin inhibitory influence on the differentiation of mouse C2C12 myoblasts.

GDF8 (myostatin) is a unique cytokine strongly affecting the skeletal muscle phenotype in human and animals. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism of myostatin influence on the differentiation of mouse C2C12 myoblasts, using the global-transcriptome analysis with the DNA microarray technique. Treatment with exogenous GDF8 strongly affected the growth and development of C2C12 mouse myoblasts. This was manifested by the inhibition of proliferation and differentiation as well as the impairment of cell fusion. DNA microarray analysis revealed 778 genes regulated by GDF8 in differentiating myoblasts (436 down-regulated and 235 up-regulated). Ontological analysis revealed their involvement in 17 types of biological processes, 10 types of molecular functions and 68 different signalling pathways. The effect of GDF8 was mainly mediated by the disruption of the cell cycle, calcium and insulin signalling pathways and expression of cytoskeletal and muscle specific proteins. The identified key-genes that could play a role as GDF8 targets in differentiating myoblasts are: Mef2, Hgf, Ilbl, Itgb1, Edn1, Ppargc1a.