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PATHWAYS
RESEARCH
How to Make Muscle Promoting muscle gene expression may help muscular dystrophy patients
Muscular dystrophies are a group of more than 30 genetic diseases. In all cases, abnormal genes cause progressive muscle weakness and loss that eventually overwhelm the regenerative capacity of muscle tissue. Today, there is no specific treatment to stop or reverse the condition. Puri’s research team is making major advances in our understanding of how muscle genes are turned on and off in satellite cells—adult stem cells found in muscle that mature into skeletal muscle. Activating muscle genes in satellite cells is a promising treatment strategy for dystrophies,
as well as muscle-wasting conditions that can occur with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke and other illnesses. Deep down in the nucleus of satellite cells sit chromosomes, three-dimensional structures made of chromatin—the tightly coiled DNAprotein packages that help fit the entire genome in a cell. Chromatin packaging plays a crucial role in gene expression—it is loosely packaged when genes are turned on and tightly packaged when genes are turned off. Like assembling a puzzle, Puri’s team is defining the proteins, mechanics and conditions needed to remodel chromatin and expose muscle genes to help satellite cells build protein.
Human muscle fibers; the muscle contractile protein is stained green and nuclei are purple