“…In addition, some ADAMs contain a hydrophobic sequence in a cysteine-rich region that may represent a fusion peptide, suggesting that this subclass of ADAMs might participate to plasma membrane merging (Huovila et al, 1996). Some ADAMs have been implicated in most mammalian cell fusion processes, including ADAM1, 2, and 3 in fertilization (Blobel et al, 1992;Huovila et al, 1996;Wolfsberg and White, 1996;Hooft, 1998) and ADAM12 in osteoclast (Abe et al, 1999;Choi et al, 2001) and macrophage-derived multinucleated giant cell formation (Abe et al, 1999), in trophoblast syncytialization (Huovila et al, 1996;Gilpin et al, 1998;Shi et al, 2000), and in myogenesis (Yagami-Hiromasa et al, 1995).Several ADAMs are expressed by adult and developing skeletal muscles, including ADAM1, 4, 9, and 15 that are ubiquitous, and ADAM12, also called meltrin-␣, whose expression is less widespread (Yagami-Hiromasa et al, 1995;Loechel et al, 2000;Kratzschmar et al, 1996;Weskamp et al, 1996;Kurisaki et al, 1998). In rodents, constitutive muscle expression of ADAM12 starts at the embryonic stage when myotubes are formed (Kurisaki et al, 1998), persists at the neonatal stage (Yagami-Hiromasa et al, 1995;Borneman et al, 2000;Kronqvist et al, 2002), and ceases in adulthood (Borneman et al, 2000;Kronqvist et al, 2002).…”