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Nuclear apoptosis contributes to skeletal muscle cachexia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Author(s) -
Sharif Salaheddin,
Thomas James M,
Donley David A,
Gilleland Diana L,
Bonner Daniel E,
McCrory Jean L.,
Hornsby W. Guyton,
Hao Yanlei,
Zhao Hua,
Gutmann Laurie,
Lively Mathew W,
Hornsby Jo Ann A,
Alway Stephen E
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.lb592
Subject(s) - tunel assay , rheumatoid arthritis , skeletal muscle , cachexia , medicine , biopsy , apoptosis , muscle biopsy , pathology , vastus lateralis muscle , endocrinology , chemistry , immunohistochemistry , cancer , biochemistry
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, autoimmune, inflammatory disease associated with cachexia (reduced muscle and increased fat). The purpose of this study was to determine if elevated apoptotic signaling occurred in skeletal muscles of RA patients. A needle muscle biopsy was obtained from the vastus lateralis of four RA subjects. Frozen tissue cross‐sections were evaluated for nuclear density (nuclei/μm 2 ) and fiber cross‐sectional area. Mean muscle fiber area was 2384.1 ± 570.5 μm 2 , and the nuclear density was 6.8 nuclei/μm 2 . The number of nuclei with DNA strand breaks was determined by a fluorometric terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase (TdT)‐mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The number of TUNEL positive nuclei was 9.8 ±0.1% in vastus laterals biopsy samples. Western blot analysis and muscle morphology were consistent with the conclusion that rheumatoid cachexia is accompanied by a low level of apoptotic signaling in RA subjects.