Effect of serial cell passaging in the retention of fiber type and mitochondrial content in primary human myotubes

Altered dynamics of lipid metabolism in muscle cells from patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy is ameliorated by 6 months of training

KEY POINTS

Regular exercise improves muscle functional capacity and clinical state of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). In our study, we used an in vitro model of human primary muscle cell cultures, derived from IIM patients before and after a 6-month intensive supervised training intervention to assess the impact of disease and exercise on lipid metabolism dynamics. We provide evidence that muscle cells from IIM patients display altered dynamics of lipid metabolism and impaired adaptive response to saturated fatty acid load compared to healthy controls. A 6-month intensive supervised exercise training intervention in patients with IIM mitigated disease effects in their cultured muscle cells, improving or normalizing their capacity to handle lipids. These findings highlight the putative role of intrinsic metabolic defects of skeletal muscle in the pathogenesis of IIM and the positive impact of exercise, maintained in vitro by yet unknown epigenetic mechanisms.

ABSTRACT

Exercise improves skeletal muscle function, clinical state and quality of life in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). Our aim was to identify disease-related metabolic perturbations and the impact of exercise in skeletal muscle cells of IIM patients. Patients underwent a 6-month intensive supervised training intervention. Muscle function, anthropometric and metabolic parameters were examined and muscle cell cultures were established (m. vastus lateralis; Bergström needle biopsy) before and after training from patients and sedentary age/sex/body mass index-matched controls. [¹⁴ C]Palmitate was used to determine fat oxidation and lipid synthesis (thin layer chromatography). Cells were exposed to a chronic (3 days) and acute (3 h) metabolic challenge (the saturated fatty acid palmitate, 100 μm). Reduced oxidative (intermediate metabolites, -49%, P = 0.034) and non-oxidative (diglycerides, -38%, P = 0.013) lipid metabolism was identified in palmitate-treated muscle cells from IIM patients compared to controls. Three days of palmitate exposure elicited distinct regulation of oxidative phosphorylation (OxPHOS) complex IV and complex V/ATP synthase (P = 0.012/0.005) and adipose triglyceride lipase in patients compared to controls (P = 0.045) (immunoblotting). Importantly, 6 months of training in IIM patients improved lipid metabolism (CO₂ , P = 0.010; intermediate metabolites, P = 0.041) and activation of AMP kinase (P = 0.007), and nearly normalized palmitate-induced changes in OxPHOS proteins in myotubes from IIM patients, in parallel with improvements of patients' clinical state. Myotubes from IIM patients displayed altered dynamics of lipid metabolism and impaired response to metabolic challenge with saturated fatty acid. Our observations suggest that metabolic defects intrinsic to skeletal muscle could represent non-immune pathomechanisms, which can contribute to muscle weakness in IIM. A 6-month training intervention mitigated disease effects in muscle cells in vitro, indicating the existence of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms.

Greater Oxidative Capacity in Primary Myotubes from Endurance-trained Women

PURPOSE

Exercise training promotes skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and an increase in maximal oxygen consumption. Primary myotubes retain some metabolic properties observed in vivo but it is unknown whether this includes exercise-induced mitochondrial adaptations. The goal of this study was to test if primary myotubes from exercise-trained women have higher mitochondrial content and maximal oxygen consumption compared with untrained women.

METHODS

Six trained and nine untrained white women participated in this study. Muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis muscle of the right leg were obtained and primary muscle cells were isolated. Maximal respiration rates, mitochondrial mRNA and protein content, and succinate dehydrogenase activity were measured in skeletal muscle and primary myotubes from trained and untrained women.

RESULTS

Trained women, compared with untrained women, had higher maximal whole-body oxygen consumption (+18%, P = 0.03), in vivo maximal skeletal muscle oxidative capacity measured with near infrared spectroscopy (+48%, P < 0.01), and maximal oxygen consumption in permeabilized muscle fibers (+38%, P = 0.02), which coincided with higher protein levels of muscle mitochondrial enzymes. Primary myotubes from trained women had higher maximal oxygen consumption (+38%, P = 0.03), suggesting that some elements of exercise-induced metabolic programming persists ex vivo. Consistent with this idea, myotubes from trained women had higher mRNA levels of transcriptional regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis in addition to higher protein levels of mitochondrial enzymes.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest the existence of an "exercise metabolic program," where primary myotubes isolated from exercise-trained individuals exhibit greater mitochondrial content and oxidative capacity compared with untrained individuals. These myotubes may be a useful model to study molecular mechanisms relevant to exercise adaptations in human skeletal muscle.