Microvascular Skeletal-Muscle Crosstalk in Health and Disease

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 13; p. 10425
• Main Authors: Pepe, Gerald J, Albrecht, Eugene D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Blood vessels; cross-talk; diabetes; Diabetes mellitus (insulin dependent); Diabetes therapy; Duchenne's muscular dystrophy; Embryos; Endothelial Cells; Endothelium; Energy balance; Estrogens; fetus; Fetuses; Glucose; Homeostasis; Hypertension; Hypertrophy; Insulin; Insulin resistance; Metabolism; Microvasculature; Muscle Contraction; Muscle Development - physiology; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Muscles; Muscular dystrophy; Muscular function; Musculoskeletal system; Myocytes; Myogenesis; Review; Skeletal muscle; Smooth muscle; Stem cells; Transcription factors; Type 2 diabetes; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Vasodilation; cross-talk; skeletal muscle; diabetes; hypertension; insulin resistance; fetus; microvasculature
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms241310425

As an organ system, skeletal muscle is essential for the generation of energy that underpins muscle contraction, plays a critical role in controlling energy balance and insulin-dependent glucose homeostasis, as well as vascular well-being, and regenerates following injury. To achieve homeostasis, there is requirement for "cross-talk" between the myogenic and vascular components and their regulatory factors that comprise skeletal muscle. Accordingly, this review will describe the following: [a] the embryonic cell-signaling events important in establishing vascular and myogenic cell-lineage, the cross-talk between endothelial cells (EC) and myogenic precursors underpinning the development of muscle, its vasculature and the satellite-stem-cell (SC) pool, and the EC-SC cross-talk that maintains SC quiescence and localizes ECs to SCs and angio-myogenesis postnatally; [b] the vascular-myocyte cross-talk and the actions of insulin on vasodilation and capillary surface area important for the uptake of glucose/insulin by myofibers and vascular homeostasis, the microvascular-myocyte dysfunction that characterizes the development of insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension, and the actions of estrogen on muscle vasodilation and growth in adults; [c] the role of estrogen in utero on the development of fetal skeletal-muscle microvascularization and myofiber hypertrophy required for metabolic/vascular homeostasis after birth; [d] the EC-SC interactions that underpin myofiber vascular regeneration post-injury; and [e] the role of the skeletal-muscle vasculature in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.