A layman’s summary of our Science Reports study on the effects of Zinc on myoblast differentiation.

  Published now in the Atlas of Science.

 

In the image, a representation of the endoplasmic reticulum (an organelle inside eukaryotic cells that looks like tubes stacked together) in a stem cell that will become a muscle cell (a myoblast). After differentiation, muscle cells organise in myotubes and then myofibrils and muscle fibres. The sarcoplasmic reticulum its the membrane-tube structure inside the muscle cells equivalent to the endoplasmic reticulum in other cells. The reticulum work as reservoir of zinc and calcium ions. The zinc cell membrane transporter (called Zip7), located in the endoplasmic reticulum, transports zinc to the cytosol.

Our work has demonstrated that the enhanced myogenic differentiation triggered by zinc occurs through the Akt signalling pathway, via zinc stimulation of transporter Zip7.

The Atlas of Science has published a layman’s summary of our paper in Scientific Reports by Hayk Mnatsakanyan, Roser Sabater-Serra, Patricia Rico-Tortosa and Manuel Salmerón-Sánchez. Direct link to our publication in the Atlas of Science

Filed under: biomaterials, muscle, myogenic differentiation, zinc