Vitamin D protects against immobilization-induced muscle atrophy via neural crest-derived cells in mice

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 12242
• Main Authors: Nakamura, Satoshi, Sato, Yuiko, Kobayashi, Tami, Kaneko, Yosuke, Ito, Eri, Soma, Tomoya, Okada, Hiroyuki, Miyamoto, Kana, Oya, Akihito, Matsumoto, Morio, Nakamura, Masaya, Kanaji, Arihiko, Miyamoto, Takeshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 22.07.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/308/1426; 692/699/2743; Animals; Atrophy; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Immobilization; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Knockout; multidisciplinary; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscular Atrophy - metabolism; Neural crest; Neural Crest - metabolism; Receptors, Calcitriol - metabolism; Risk factors; Rodents; Sarcopenia; Sarcopenia - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Skeletal muscle; Vitamin D; Vitamin D - metabolism; Vitamin D Deficiency - metabolism; Vitamin D receptors; Vitamin deficiency
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69021-y

Vitamin D deficiency is a recognized risk factor for sarcopenia development, but mechanisms underlying this outcome are unclear. Here, we show that low vitamin D status worsens immobilization-induced muscle atrophy in mice. Mice globally lacking vitamin D receptor (VDR) exhibited more severe muscle atrophy following limb immobilization than controls. Moreover, immobilization-induced muscle atrophy was worse in neural crest-specific than in skeletal muscle-specific VDR-deficient mice. Tnfα expression was significantly higher in immobilized muscle of VDR-deficient relative to control mice, and was significantly elevated in neural crest-specific but not muscle-specific VDR-deficient mice. Furthermore, muscle atrophy induced by limb immobilization in low vitamin D mice was significantly inhibited in Tnfα-deficient mice. We conclude that vitamin D antagonizes immobilization-induced muscle atrophy via VDR expressed in neural crest-derived cells.