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Microvasculature and Skeletal Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 7473

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Interests: skeletal muscle; angiogenesis; capillaries; basement membrane; nitric oxide synthase

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Guest Editor
School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Interests: muscle; oxygen transport; angiogenesis; thermal biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Skeletal muscle is a striking example of an organ that relies on the mutual communication of different tissue systems. Adequate perfusion in the terminal blood vessels ensures sufficient exchange of respiratory gases and substrates with the surrounding skeletal muscle fibers. Concurrently, skeletal muscle fibers send metabolic feedback signals to the microvasculature, inducing structural and functional adaptations at different levels of organization.

In the IJMS Special issue, we will present an update on the various processes involved in this vascular/skeletal interplay. The focus of the original papers and reviews should be on the molecular interaction to realize the tissue crosstalk and adaptive remodelling that results. To increase coherence of the collection we invite articles on the following topics, but are open to additional approaches: 1. Impact of blood flow regulation on microvascular response, 2. arteriogenesis, 3. angiogenesis, 4. diffusion limits, 5. metabolism, 6. myokines and 7. pathologic dysregulation of the microvascular/muscle fiber interaction (e.g. muscle dystrophy, diabetes mellitus). Manuscripts from early career investigator are especially welcome.

Dr. Oliver Baum
Prof. Dr. Stuart Egginton
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • skeletal muscle
  • microcirculation
  • blood flow
  • diffusion limits
  • metabolic feedback
  • myokines
  • pathologic dysregulation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1195 KiB  
Communication
Nicotine and Microvascular Responses in Skeletal Muscle from Acute Exposure to Cigarettes and Vaping
by Christopher R. Pitzer, Eiman A. Aboaziza, Juliana M. O’Reilly, W. Kyle Mandler and I. Mark Olfert
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(12), 10208; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241210208 - 16 Jun 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2493
Abstract
Despite claims of safety or harm reduction for electronic cigarettes (E-cig) use (also known as vaping), emerging evidence indicates that E-cigs are not likely safe, or necessarily safer than traditional cigarettes, when considering the user’s risk of developing vascular dysfunction/disease. E-cigs are different [...] Read more.
Despite claims of safety or harm reduction for electronic cigarettes (E-cig) use (also known as vaping), emerging evidence indicates that E-cigs are not likely safe, or necessarily safer than traditional cigarettes, when considering the user’s risk of developing vascular dysfunction/disease. E-cigs are different from regular cigarettes in that E-cig devices are highly customizable, and users can change the e-liquid composition (such as the base solution, flavors, and nicotine level). Since the effects of E-cigs on the microvascular responses in skeletal muscle are poorly understood, we used intravital microscopy with an acute (one-time 10 puff) exposure paradigm to evaluate the individual components of e-liquid on vascular tone and endothelial function in the arterioles of the gluteus maximus muscle of anesthetized C57Bl/6 mice. Consistent with the molecular responses seen with endothelial cells, we found that the peripheral vasoconstriction response was similar between mice exposed to E-cig aerosol or cigarette smoke (i.e., 3R4F reference cigarette); this response was not nicotine dependent, and endothelial cell-mediated vasodilation was not altered within this acute exposure paradigm. We also report that, regardless of the base solution component [i.e., vegetable glycerin (VG)-only or propylene glycol (PG)-only], the vasoconstriction responses were the same in mice with inhalation exposure to 3R4F cigarette smoke or E-cig aerosol. Key findings from this work reveal that some component other than nicotine, in inhaled smoke or aerosol, is responsible for triggering peripheral vasoconstriction in skeletal muscle, and that regardless of one’s preference for an E-cig base solution composition (i.e., ratio of VG-to-PG), the acute physiological response to blood vessels appears to be the same. The data suggest that vaping is not likely to be ‘safer’ than smoking towards blood vessels and can be expected to produce and/or result in the same adverse vascular health outcomes associated with smoking cigarettes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microvasculature and Skeletal Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease)
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17 pages, 2386 KiB  
Article
nNOS Increases Fiber Type-Specific Angiogenesis in Skeletal Muscle of Mice in Response to Endurance Exercise
by Oliver Baum, Felicitas A. M. Huber-Abel and Martin Flück
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(11), 9341; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24119341 - 26 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1609
Abstract
We studied the relationship between neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) expression and capillarity in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle of mice subjected to treadmill training. The mRNA (+131%) and protein (+63%) levels of nNOS were higher (p ≤ 0.05) in the TA muscle [...] Read more.
We studied the relationship between neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) expression and capillarity in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle of mice subjected to treadmill training. The mRNA (+131%) and protein (+63%) levels of nNOS were higher (p ≤ 0.05) in the TA muscle of C57BL/6 mice undergoing treadmill training for 28 days than in those of littermates remaining sedentary, indicating an up-regulation of nNOS by endurance exercise. Both TA muscles of 16 C57BL/6 mice were subjected to gene electroporation with either the pIRES2-ZsGreen1 plasmid (control plasmid) or the pIRES2-ZsGreen1-nNOS gene-inserted plasmid (nNOS plasmid). Subsequently, one group of mice (n = 8) underwent treadmill training for seven days, while the second group of mice (n = 8) remained sedentary. At study end, 12–18% of TA muscle fibers expressed the fluorescent reporter gene ZsGreen1. Immunofluorescence for nNOS was 23% higher (p ≤ 0.05) in ZsGreen1-positive fibers than ZsGreen1-negative fibers from the nNOS-transfected TA muscle of mice subjected to treadmill training. Capillary contacts around myosin heavy-chain (MHC)-IIb immunoreactive fibers (14.2%; p ≤ 0.05) were only higher in ZsGreen1-positive fibers than ZsGreen1-negative fibers in the nNOS-plasmid-transfected TA muscles of trained mice. Our observations are in line with an angiogenic effect of quantitative increases in nNOS expression, specifically in type-IIb muscle fibers after treadmill training. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microvasculature and Skeletal Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease)
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Review

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24 pages, 4047 KiB  
Review
Microvascular Skeletal-Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease
by Gerald J. Pepe and Eugene D. Albrecht
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(13), 10425; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241310425 - 21 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2839
Abstract
As an organ system, skeletal muscle is essential for the generation of energy that underpins muscle contraction, plays a critical role in controlling energy balance and insulin-dependent glucose homeostasis, as well as vascular well-being, and regenerates following injury. To achieve homeostasis, there is [...] Read more.
As an organ system, skeletal muscle is essential for the generation of energy that underpins muscle contraction, plays a critical role in controlling energy balance and insulin-dependent glucose homeostasis, as well as vascular well-being, and regenerates following injury. To achieve homeostasis, there is requirement for “cross-talk” between the myogenic and vascular components and their regulatory factors that comprise skeletal muscle. Accordingly, this review will describe the following: [a] the embryonic cell-signaling events important in establishing vascular and myogenic cell-lineage, the cross-talk between endothelial cells (EC) and myogenic precursors underpinning the development of muscle, its vasculature and the satellite-stem-cell (SC) pool, and the EC–SC cross-talk that maintains SC quiescence and localizes ECs to SCs and angio-myogenesis postnatally; [b] the vascular–myocyte cross-talk and the actions of insulin on vasodilation and capillary surface area important for the uptake of glucose/insulin by myofibers and vascular homeostasis, the microvascular-myocyte dysfunction that characterizes the development of insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension, and the actions of estrogen on muscle vasodilation and growth in adults; [c] the role of estrogen in utero on the development of fetal skeletal-muscle microvascularization and myofiber hypertrophy required for metabolic/vascular homeostasis after birth; [d] the EC–SC interactions that underpin myofiber vascular regeneration post-injury; and [e] the role of the skeletal-muscle vasculature in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microvasculature and Skeletal Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease)
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