title: Brief-reports: elevated myostatin levels in patients with liver disease: a potential contributor to skeletal muscle wasting.
abstract: Loss of skeletal muscle mass is a poorly understood complication of end-stage liver disease (ESLD). Based on recent stem cell literature, we hypothesized that the potent negative regulator of muscle mass, myostatin, could play a role in the muscle loss associated with ESLD. In this preliminary investigation, we measured myostatin levels in patients undergoing liver transplant evaluation, using a novel enzyme-linked immunosensitivity assay. Myostatin levels were significantly elevated in patients with ESLD compared with healthy controls. These data suggest that myostatin deserves further investigation as a target for therapies designed to preserve muscle mass in patients with ESLD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cabbabe
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kambadur
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nicholas
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Csete
mesh_terms: D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017093:Liver Failure / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000097:blood; D008875:Middle Aged; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology; D055435:Myostatin / Q000097:blood*; D011517:Prothrombin Time; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D019282:Wasting Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D055435:Myostatin; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta