DNAJB2 expression in normal and diseased human and mouse skeletal muscle

Am J Pathol. 2010 Jun;176(6):2901-10. doi: 10.2353/ajpath.2010.090663. Epub 2010 Apr 15.

Abstract

DNAJB2, a co-chaperone regulator of Hsp70 that is expressed principally in the nervous system, has been recently reported to be up-regulated in human skeletal muscle during its recovery from damage. Here we identified DNAJB2 expression in regenerating fibers in skeletal muscles of the dystrophic mdx mouse and patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Surprisingly, in both dystrophic and control mice and patients, DNAJB2 was also expressed in non-regenerating fibers at the postsynaptic side of the neuromuscular junction. DNAJB2 functions as an adaptor molecule for the evacuation and degradation of proteins through the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and overexpression of DNAJB2 in models of the neurodegenerative disease spinobulbar muscular atrophy was shown to result in the reduction of protein inclusions. We therefore studied the possible relation of DNAJB2 expression to protein inclusion formation in skeletal muscle in biopsies of several muscle pathologies associated with protein aggregation and found in all of them a strong immunoreactivity with anti-DNAJB2 in aggregates and vacuoles. We conclude that DNAJB2 is expressed in mouse and human skeletal muscle at the neuromuscular junction of normal fibers, in the cytoplasm and membrane of regenerating fibers, and in protein aggregates and vacuoles in protein aggregate myopathies. Therefore, we propose a role for DNAJB2 in protein turnover processes in skeletal muscle.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Animals
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • HSP40 Heat-Shock Proteins / genetics
  • HSP40 Heat-Shock Proteins / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Inbred mdx*
  • Middle Aged
  • Molecular Chaperones / genetics
  • Molecular Chaperones / metabolism*
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / cytology
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / pathology
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / physiology
  • Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne* / metabolism
  • Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne* / pathology
  • Neuromuscular Junction / metabolism
  • Regeneration / physiology

Substances

  • DNAJB2 protein, human
  • DNAJB2 protein, mouse
  • HSP40 Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Molecular Chaperones