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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2003, p. 4331-4343, Vol. 23, No. 12
0270-7306/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/MCB.23.12.4331-4343.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Altered Skeletal Muscle Phenotypes in Calcineurin A and Aß Gene-Targeted Mice

Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Medical Center,¹ Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039²

Received 30 December 2002/ Returned for modification 3 March 2003/ Accepted 26 March 2003

Calcineurin is a calcium-regulated serine-threonine protein phosphatase that controls developmental and inducible biological responses in diverse cell types, in part through activation of the transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT). In skeletal muscle, calcineurin has been implicated in the regulation of myoblast differentiation, hypertrophy of mature myofibers, and fiber type switching in response to alterations in intracellular calcium concentration. However, considerable disagreement persists about the functional role of calcineurin signaling in each of these processes. Here we evaluated the molecular phenotypes of skeletal muscle from both calcineurin A and calcineurin Aß gene-targeted mice. Calcineurin A was observed to be the predominant catalytic isoform expressed in nearly all skeletal muscles examined. Neither calcineurin A or Aß null mice showed any gross growth-related alterations in skeletal muscle, nor was fiber size or number altered in glycolytic/fast muscle types. In contrast, both calcineurin A and Aß gene-targeted mice demonstrated an alteration in myofiber number in the soleus, an oxidative/slow-type muscle. More significantly, calcineurin A and Aß gene-targeted mice showed a dramatic down-regulation in the oxidative/slow fiber type program in multiple muscles (both slow and fast). Associated with this observation, NFAT-luciferase reporter transgenic mice showed significantly greater activity in slow fiber-containing muscles than in fast. However, only calcineurin A null mice showed a defect in NFAT nuclear occupancy or NFAT-luciferase transgene activity in vivo. Collectively, our results suggest that calcineurin signaling plays a critical role in regulating skeletal muscle fiber type switching but not hypertrophy. Our results also suggest that fiber type switching occurs through an NFAT-independent mechanism.

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