The 24-hour molecular landscape after exercise in humans reveals MYC is sufficient for muscle growth

EMBO Rep. 2024 Dec;25(12):5810-5837. doi: 10.1038/s44319-024-00299-z. Epub 2024 Oct 31.

Abstract

A detailed understanding of molecular responses to a hypertrophic stimulus in skeletal muscle leads to therapeutic advances aimed at promoting muscle mass. To decode the molecular factors regulating skeletal muscle mass, we utilized a 24-h time course of human muscle biopsies after a bout of resistance exercise. Our findings indicate: (1) the DNA methylome response at 30 min corresponds to upregulated genes at 3 h, (2) a burst of translation- and transcription-initiation factor-coding transcripts occurs between 3 and 8 h, (3) changes to global protein-coding gene expression peaks at 8 h, (4) ribosome-related genes dominate the mRNA landscape between 8 and 24 h, (5) methylation-regulated MYC is a highly influential transcription factor throughout recovery. To test whether MYC is sufficient for hypertrophy, we periodically pulse MYC in skeletal muscle over 4 weeks. Transient MYC increases muscle mass and fiber size in the soleus of adult mice. We present a temporally resolved resource for understanding molecular adaptations to resistance exercise in muscle ( http://data.myoanalytics.com ) and suggest that controlled MYC doses influence the exercise-related hypertrophic transcriptional landscape.

Keywords: Biopsy; Methylome; Time Course; Transcription Factors; Transcriptome.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Animals
  • DNA Methylation
  • Exercise* / physiology
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Muscle Development / genetics
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / growth & development
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / metabolism
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc* / genetics
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc* / metabolism

Substances

  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc