The Expression of Intermediate Filament protein Nestin as Related to Vimentin and Desmin in Regenerating Skeletal Muscle

Abstract

Intermediate filament (IF) proteins show specific spatial and temporal expression during development of skeletal muscle. Nestin, the least known muscle IF, has an important role in neuronal regeneration. Therefore, we analyzed the expression pattern of nestin as related to that of vimentin and desmin during skeletal muscle regeneration. Nestin and vimentin appear at 6 h post-injury in myoblasts, with maximum expression around day 3-5 post-injury. Thereafter, vimentin expression ceases completely, whereas that of nestin is downregulated to remain only in the sarcoplasm next to neuromuscular and myotendinous junctions. Desmin appears at 6-12 h post-injury and becomes the predominant IF in myofibers simultaneously with the appearance of cross-striations. The expression pattern and colocalization of nestin and vimentin, known to form heteropolymers, suggests that they are essential during the early dynamic phase of the myofiber regeneration when migration, fusion, and structural modeling of myogenic cells occurs, whereas desmin is responsible for keeping myofibrils in register in mature myofibers. In conclusion, the expression of nestin is dynamically orchestrated with that of vimentin and desmin during skeletal muscle regeneration and recapitulates that seen during myogenesis, i.e. these IFs have key functional roles in the construction and restoration of skeletal myofibers.

Effect of Energy Compound on Skeletal Muscle Strain Injury and Regeneration in Rats

“…In contrast to the decrease of vimentin, the expression of desmin increased significantly from day 7th to day 14th after injury. This opposite regulation of these two intermediate filament proteins, concurrent with the differentiation of skeletal muscle, has also been confirmed by other studies [27][28][29] . Compared to the saline-group, the high expression of desmin and vimentin in energy-compound group indicates that energy-compound could help facilitate muscle regeneration through its effects of protecting muscles from primary and secondary injury and maintaining the maximum muscle regeneration abilities.…”

Differentiation of Serum-Free Mouse Embryo Cells into an Astrocytic Lineage is Associated with the Asymmetric Production of Early Neural, Neuronal and Glial Markers

“…[36][37][38] It is also expressed during the regeneration of injured adult tissue. 39,40) Although expression of nestin is detected in various cells and tissues, the factors and mechanisms controlling nestin expression remain unknown. Tubulin is a ubiquitous structural protein and is found in cells as microtubules consisting of a-and b-tubulin monomers.…”

Nestin regulates prostate cancer cell invasion by influencing FAK and integrin localisation and functions

“…During myogenesis, nestin is an inhibitor of differentiation . In the adult, nestin has a role in promoting regeneration (Vaittinen et al, 2001), which involves acquisition of a motile phenotype. In acinar-ductal metaplasia, nestin expression was correlated with the accumulation of cells at an intermediate stage of metaplasia, implying that nestin inhibits progress through metaplasia (Miyamoto et al, 2003).…”

“…Nestin is regarded as a marker of stem cells and differentiation, but its cellular functions remain unclear. Nestin is expressed in early development, and is induced during the regeneration of neuronal (Frisén et al, 1995;Lin et al, 1995;Shibuya et al, 2002) and muscle tissues (Č ížková et al, 2009;Vaittinen et al, 2001). During differentiation, nestin is expressed at the early stages; as differentiation proceeds, nestin is downregulated and replaced by other cell-type-specific intermediate filaments, such as vimentin or desmin (Vaittinen et al, 1999).…”