Adaptation in myosin expression of avian skeletal muscle after weighting and unweighting.

Stretch-induced hypertrophy of the quail anterior latissimus dorsi is associated with decreased slow myosin 1 and increased slow myosin 2 expression and a small increase in expression of fast myosins. Because reduced neural activity has also been shown to accelerate expression from slow myosin 1 to slow myosin 2, we tested whether the increased expression of slow myosin 2 would be maintained when stretch was removed during a time when muscle activity would not be expected to increase. Quail anterior latissimus dorsi muscles were examined after 0-30 days of stretch overload and after 30 or 60 days of unweighting following 30 days of stretch. As expected, slow myosin 2 expression increased and slow myosin 1 expression decreased after 14-30 days of stretch. Novel findings were that slow myosin 1 and slow myosin 2 returned to control levels after unweighting. Furthermore, the expression of developmental and fast myosin heavy chains were evident by day 7, and maintained throughout wing unweighting. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that alterations in fast and developmental myosin expression result from formation and subsequent maintenance of new fibres during hypertrophy and regression. The relative amount and expression of myosin appears dependent upon mechanical stretch in the anterior latissimus dorsi muscle.