Insights into the differences of caspase and apoptosis levels in pork longissimus thoracis muscles with different tenderness: A perspective on S-nitrosylation modification

Chao Ma; Tongyao Du; Wenxuan Wang; Yujia Liu; Zhenhong An; Qin Hou; Lujuan Xing; Wangang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142810

Insights into the differences of caspase and apoptosis levels in pork longissimus thoracis muscles with different tenderness: A perspective on S-nitrosylation modification

Food Chem. 2025 Jan 6:471:142810. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142810. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chao Ma¹, Tongyao Du², Wenxuan Wang¹, Yujia Liu¹, Zhenhong An¹, Qin Hou³, Lujuan Xing¹, Wangang Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Meat Quality Control and Cultured Meat Development, Ministry of Education China, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
² Laboratory for Animal Nutrition and Animal Product Quality, Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
³ Key Laboratory of Chinese Cuisine Intangible Cultural Heritage Technology Inheritance, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, College of Tourism and Culinary Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Meat Quality Control and Cultured Meat Development, Ministry of Education China, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39793362
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142810

Abstract

This study investigated the differences of caspase and apoptosis levels in pork with different tenderness from the perspective of S-nitrosylation and further explored their role during pork tenderization. Ten longissimus thoracis muscles selected from 36 individual carcasses based on shear force were divided into high (HT) and low (LT) tenderness groups (n = 5), respectively. Results demonstrated that total nitric oxide synthase activity and protein S-nitrosylation levels of LT group were higher than HT group, while myocyte apoptosis levels were lower in LT group (p < 0.05). Additionally, LT group possessed a lower caspase-3 activity while a higher abundance of intact caspase-3 and greater S-nitrosylation levels of cleaved caspase-3 (p < 0.05). However, none of the above differences were found in caspase-9 (p > 0.05). The lower tenderness in LT group might be associated with reduced caspase-3 activity resulted from increased S-nitrosylation levels of its active subunits, which delayed myocyte apoptosis and lowed the degradation of desmin and troponin T.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Caspase; Pork tenderness; Protein degradation; S-nitrosylation.