Acute daily psychological stress causes increased atrophic gene expression and myostatin-dependent muscle atrophy

Abstract

Psychological stress is known to attenuate body size and lean body mass. We tested the effects of 1, 3, or 7 days of two different models of psychological stress, 1 h of daily restraint stress (RS) or daily cage-switching stress (CS), on skeletal muscle size and atrophy-associated gene expression in mice. Thymus weights decreased in both RS and CS mice compared with unstressed controls, suggesting that both models activated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Body mass was significantly decreased at all time points for both models of stress but was greater for RS than CS. Mass of the tibialis anterior (TA) and soleus (SOL) muscles was significantly decreased after 3 and 7 days of RS, but CS only significantly decreased SOL mass after 7 days. TA mRNA levels of the atrophy-associated genes myostatin (MSTN), atrogin-1, and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitory subunit p85alpha were all significantly increased relative to unstressed mice after 1 and 3 days of RS, and expression of MSTN and p85alpha mRNA remained elevated after 7 days of RS. Expression of muscle ring finger 1 was increased after 1 day of RS but returned to baseline at 3 and 7 days of RS. MSTN, atrogin-1, and p85alpha mRNA levels also significantly increased after 1 and 3 days of CS but atrogen-1 mRNA levels had resolved back to normal levels by 3 days and p85alpha with 7 days of CS. p21CIP mRNA levels were significantly decreased by 3 days of CS or RS. Finally, body mass was minimally affected, and muscle mass was completely unaffected by 3 days of RS in mice null for the MSTN gene, and MSTN inactivation attenuated the increase in atrogin-1 mRNA levels with 4 days of RS compared with wild-type mice. Together these data suggest that acute daily psychological stress induces atrophic gene expression and loss of muscle mass that appears to be MSTN dependent.

Chronic Restraint Stress Upregulates Erythropoiesis through Glucocorticoid Stimulation

“…Here mice exposed to an extended RST protocol demonstrate similar biological hallmarks of chronic restraint stress, namely, decreased body weight, spleen and thymus mass in conjunction with elevated circulating corticosterone and adrenal mass. These results align with findings in depressive stress models and distinguish from rodent models of acute stress [42,43] or anxiety [27,44]. To characterize the biological impact of extended psychological stress on genetic networks, genome-wide microarray analysis was performed on mice following seven days of RST.…”

Handgrip strength, dynapenia, and mental health in older Koreans

“…For example, sarcopenic obesity was associated with perceived stress in a Korean study, while perceived stress was negatively correlated with HGS in older adults in another study 29 . This correlation does not necessarily mean that HGS causes stress, as stress-related hormones can induce atrophic gene expression and cause muscle atrophy 30 .…”

Skin Conductance Reflects Drug-Induced Changes in Blood Levels of Cortisol, Adrenaline and Noradrenaline in Dogs

“…Transient stress is normally controlled by physiological activities that maintain the body in a steady state. However, exposure to continual stress is harder to control and may cause stress-related diseases, such as atrophy of lymph nodes [1], peptic ulcers [16] and high blood pressure [22]. To prevent these diseases and improve the quality of life, it is important to elucidate the stress levels experienced by the body.…”