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Using Odor to Investigate Muscle Repair
The results are published online and scheduled for publication in the November issue of the journal Developmental Cell.
Found on the surfaces of neurons inside the nose, odorant receptors are molecules that bind and respond to substances wafting through the air. Researchers have shown that one particular odorant receptor gene, MOR23, is turned on in muscle cells undergoing repair.
"Normally MOR23 is not turned on when the tissue is at rest, so we wouldn't have picked it up without looking specifically at muscle injury," says Grace Pavlath, PhD, professor of pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine. "There is no way we would have guessed this."
Interfering with MOR23 inhibits muscle cells' ability to migrate, stick to each other and form long fibers, Pavlath and her colleagues showed. In addition, MOR23 is the first molecule found to influence the process of myofiber branching, a form of degeneration seen in muscular dystrophies and aging.
The finding could lead to new ways to treat muscular dystrophies and muscle wasting diseases, and also suggests that odorant receptors may have additional unexpected functions in other tissues.
The stem cells that renew muscle tissue are called satellite cells. Several years ago, Pavlath observed that MOR23 was turned on when mouse satellite cells were fusing to form extended muscle fibers in culture. At the same time, graduate student Christine Griffin noticed a Japanese report that MOR23 is also turned on in sperm cells and influences their migration.
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