The biological membrane that surrounds the milk fat globules exhibits phase separation of polar lipids that is poorly known. The objective of this study was to investigate the role played by cholesterol in the organization of monolayers prepared as models of the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction experiments allowed characterization of the gel to liquid crystalline phase transition temperature of lipids, Tm ~35°C, in vesicles prepared with a MFGM lipid extract. For temperature below Tm, atomic force microscopy revealed phase separation of lipids at 30 mN·m(-1) in Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of the MFGM lipid extract. The high Tm lipids form liquid condensed (LC) domains that protrude by about 1.5 nm from the continuous liquid expanded (LE) phase. Cholesterol was added to the MFGM extract up to 30% of polar lipids (cholesterol/milk sphingomyelin (MSM) molar ratio of 50/50). Compression isotherms evidenced the condensing effect of the cholesterol onto the MFGM lipid monolayers. Topography of the monolayers showed a decrease in the area of the LC domains and in the height difference H between the LC domains and the continuous LE phase, as the cholesterol content increased in the MFGM lipid monolayers. These results were interpreted in terms of nucleation effects of cholesterol and decrease of the line tension between LC domains and LE phase in the MFGM lipid monolayers. This study revealed the major structural role of cholesterol in the MFGM that could be involved in biological functions of this interface (e.g. mechanisms of milk fat globule digestion).

Fish satellite cells have been extracted from various species, but the myogenic characteristics of these cells in culture remain largely unknown. We show here that 60%-70% of the adherent cells are myogenic based on their immunoreactivity for the myogenic regulatory factor MyoD. In DMEM containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), trout myoblasts display rapid expression of myogenin (18% of myogenin-positive cells at day 2) combined with rapid fusion into myotubes (50% of myogenin-positive nuclei and 30% nuclei in myosin heavy chain [MyHC]-positive cells at day 7). These kinetics of differentiation are reminiscent of the behavior of fetal myoblasts in mammals. However, not all the myogenic cells differentiate; this subpopulation of cells might correspond to the previously named "reserve" cells. More than 90% of the BrdU-positive cells are also positive for MyoD, indicating that myogenic cells proliferate in vitro. By contrast, less than 1% of myogenin-positive cells are positive for BrdU suggesting that myogenin expression occurs only in post-mitotic cells. In order to maximize either the proliferation or the differentiation of cells, we have defined new culture conditions based on the use of a proliferation medium (F10+10%FCS) and a differentiation medium (DMEM+2%FCS). Three days after switching the medium, the differentiation index (% MyHC-positive nuclei) is 40-fold higher than that in proliferation medium, whereas the proliferation index (% BrdU-positive nuclei) is three-fold lower. Stimulation of cell proliferation by insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), IGF2, and FGF2 is greater in F10 medium. The characterization of these extracted muscle cells thus validates the use of this in vitro system of myogenesis in further studies of the myogenic activity of growth factors in trout.

We report the cloning of a new trout myogenic cDNA which encodes helix-loop-helix protein homologous to the myogenic factor myogenin. Northern analyses indicate that trout myogenin (Tmyogenin) transcripts accumulate in large amounts in the myotomal musculature of embryos and frys. In adults, transcripts concentrate within the thin lateral layer of red (slow oxydative) muscle fibres. They are present only in low amounts in white (fast glycolytic) muscle fibres which constitute the major part of the trunk musculature. Using an in vitro myogenesis system, we observed that the trout myogenin encoding gene is not activated until myosatellite cells fuse to generate multinocleated myotubes, indicating that Tmyogenin lies downstream of muscle determination factors. All these observations show that in a major taxinomic group like teleosts, a gene with homology to myogenin exists. Its activation during myogenesis suggests that it acts as a major developmental regulator of muscle differentiation.

The effects of short-term fasting and refeeding were studied on satellite cells extracted from white epaxial muscle of juvenile rainbow trout (1-3 g body weight). In vitro changes in the proliferation of satellite cells were analyzed using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation over a 24-h period. Proliferation in fed control fish was characterized by an initial basal proliferation rate of 5-10% BrdU-labeled nuclei x day(-1), followed by an exponential increase at a rate of +18-20% x day(-1), up to a maximum of 60-70% BrdU-labeled nuclei x day(-1). Characteristics of satellite cells extracted from starved fish, namely extraction yield, morphology, and proliferation, were different from those of fed fish. Fasting (8-10 days) completely suppressed initial proliferation of satellite cells in vitro over a period of 4 days. After this delay, proliferation resumed and changes in proliferation rates over time were similar to those of the control group. In fish fed for 4 days after an 8-day fast, the initial proliferation rate and the changes in proliferation rates over time were completely restored. These findings demonstrate that satellite cells express different behavior depending on feeding status, which could be due to the presence of different satellite cell populations.

To characterize and study the variations of IGF-I binding during the development of trout muscle cells, in vitro experiments were conducted using myocyte cultures, and IGF-I binding assays were performed in three stages of cell development: mononuclear cells ( day 1), small myotubes ( day 4), and large myotubes ( day 10). Binding experiments were done by incubating cells with IGF-I for 12 h at 4°C. Specific IGF-I binding increased with the concentration of labeled IGF-I and reached a plateau at 32 pM. The displacement of cold human and trout IGF-I showed a very similar curve (EC50 = 1.19 ± 0.05 and 0.95 ± 0.05 nM, respectively). IGF binding proteins did not interfere significantly because displacement of labeled IGF-I by either cold trout recombinant IGF-I or Des (1–3) IGF-I resulted in similar curves. Insulin did not displace labeled IGF-I even at very high concentrations (>1 μM), which indicates the specificity of IGF-I binding. The amount of receptor (R0) increased from 253 ± 51 fmol/mg DNA on day 1 to 766 ± 107 fmol/mg DNA on day 10. However, the affinity ( K d) of IGF-I receptors did not change significantly during this development (from 1.29 ± 0.19 to 0.79 ± 0.13 nM). On the basis of our results, we conclude that rainbow trout muscle cells in culture express specific IGF-I receptors, which increase their number with development from mononuclear cells to large myotubes.

Background: Growing interest is turned to fat storage levels and allocation within body compartments, due to their impact on human health and quality properties of farm animals. Energy intake and genetic background are major determinants of fattening in most animals, including humans. Previous studies have evidenced that fat deposition depends upon balance between various metabolic pathways. Using divergent selection, we obtained rainbow trout with differences in fat allocation between visceral adipose tissue and muscle, and no change in overall body fat content. Transcriptome and proteome analysis were applied to characterize the molecular changes occurring between these two lines when fed a low or a high energy diet. We focused on the liver, center of intermediary metabolism and the main site for lipogenesis in fish, as in humans and most avian species.

The effect of two different preslaughter procedures (limited or 15-min intense muscular activity) on muscle trout proteins was investigated. Muscle was sampled 45 min and 24 h post-mortem, proteins were separated using two-dimensional electrophoresis, and spots of interest were tentatively identified by MALDI-TOF spectrometry. Twenty-nine and 4 spots were differentially represented between the two groups of fish at 45 min and 24 h post-mortem, respectively. Spots that could be identified corresponded mainly to proteins involved in energy-producing pathways (triosephosphate isomerase, enolase, pyruvate dehydrogenase) or to structural proteins (desmin, cap-Z, myosin heavy chain fragment). Persistent under-representation of desmin, a key cytoskeletal protein, in fish submitted to intense muscular activity suggests that such a preslaughter treatment can have an effect on post-mortem muscle integrity.

We have isolated the cDNA encoding a myogenic factor expressed in embryonic trout muscle by hybridization with a Xenopus MyoD cDNA. Nucleotide sequence analysis and amino acid comparison showed that this cDNA called TMyoD encodes a polypeptide of 276 amino acids with 70% identity to the entire Xenopus MyoD protein and 92% identity within the basic and myc-like region. Results from Northern blotting showed that the corresponding transcript is expressed both in adult and embryonic skeletal musculature and in an in vitro myogenesis system, but is undetectable in cardiac and smooth muscles and in non muscle tissues.Key words: MyoD; Myogenesis; Teleost; (Satellite cell)The MyoD gene identified by substract cloning for myoblast specific RNA is the prototype of a family of master regulators of skeletal myogenesis which includes in vertebrates three other members namely myogenin, Myf5 and MRF4 identified subsequently [1][2][3][4][5]. All these genes encode proteins that share a highly conserved central region termed the basic/helix-loop-helix(B-HLH) domain related to the c-myc superfamily and contain sequences essential for both dimerisation and DNA binding [6]. In multipotential 10T1/2 cells, transfection experiments have shown that forced expression of these exogenous myogenic factors is sufficient to drive them down the muscle differentiation pathway suggesting their functions in myogenic lineage determination [1][2][3][4][5]. In contrast to vertebrates whose genome encodes multiple members of the MyoD family, invertebrates, including Sea urchin [7], C. elegans [8] and Drosophila [9], appear to contain only a single myogenic factor encoding gene. However, the myogenic factor for Sea urchin and C. elegans activates myogenesis in 10T1/2 cells indicating a highly conserved mechanism for muscle genes activation. Myogenic factors have been studied in mammals, amphibians and birds [10], but nothing is known to date in fish. To analyse early developmental events leading to muscle formation in fish, we set out to isolate myogenic regulatory factors from Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) embryos (398 degree days) using a probe which spanned functional domains of the Xenopus MyoD cDNA. For this purpose, a Agtl0 cDNA library was constructed from poly(A) ÷ RNA of the trunk of rainbow trout embryos. The double strands cDNAs synthetized by the method of Gubler et al. [11] were size fractionated by gel filtration on a sepharose 4B column (Pharmacia) and the largest fractions were pooled, inserted into Agtl0 vector (Stratagene) and encapsided using an in vitro packaging kit (Amersham). After amplification of the cDNA library, approximately 5 • 105 plaques were screened at low stringency with a fragment from the Xenopus MyoD cDNA encompassing the B-HLH domain [12]. From 9 positive clones, we identified a single cDNA of 1.5 kb which had two EcoRI fragments of aproximately 1.2 and 0.3 kb. Restriction analysis and sequencing showed that this internal EcoRI site was not situated near a Notl site which is contained in the linker...