Impaired training-induced myogenesis in COPD is due to blunt expression of extracellular matrix proteins

Introduction: Myogenesis in healthy people is associated with increased expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins such as the myostatin inhibitors decorin (DCN) and biglycan (BGN); increased myostatin expression attenuates myogenesis. We investigated whether attenuated training-induced myogenesis in COPD (Vogiatzis et al 2010, ERJ) is partially explained by blunt training-induced expression of ECM.  

Methods: Vastus lateralis muscle protein expression from COPD (FFMI; 17.3 Kg.cm2, n=29) and age-matched healthy people (FFMI: 19.4 Kg.cm2; n = 18) was quantified using ELISA (R&D Systems) before and after a 10-week interval exercise training (EX) programme.  

Results: At baseline, DCN expression was downregulated in COPD vs healthy (Figure 1), whereas BGN expression was not different between cohorts. EX promoted greater upregulation in the expression of both DCN and BGN in healthy vs COPD (Figure 1).  

Conclusion: Impaired myogenesis in COPD in response to exercise training may partially be explained by blunt expression of myostatin inhibitor ECM proteins, highlighting their importance as targets for further research and therapeutic interventions.