Minas Nalbandian presents at the 2023 Frontiers in Myogenesis Comference

The 2023 Frontiers in Myogenesis meeting was held from November 6-11th 2023 in São Paulo (Brazil) at the Sofitel Guarujá Jequitimar hotel. The conference, "Frontiers in Myogenesis: Advances in Skeletal Muscle Growth, Repair and Disease", featured oral presentations posters from scientists interested in skeletal muscle. 

Postdoctoral Scholar Minas Nalbandian, PhD, presented a poster entitled  "Gerozyme Inhibition Rescues the Skeletal Muscle Overload Response in Aged Mice" on his research.  Aging is characterized by an impaired ability of skeletal muscles to adequately respond to mechanical overload. During overload, muscle stem cells (MuSCs) become activated, proliferate, and differentiate and then fuse to form myotubes. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels play a pivotal role in inflammation, tissue repair, and muscle adaptation. The Blau lab previously showed that PGE2 is also critical for MuSC activation. Moreover, the lab also showed that in aged mice with impaired muscle function, 15-hydroxyprostaglandin-dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), the PGE2 degrading enzyme, is upregulated and PGE2 levels are reduced. 15-PGDH inhibition increases PGE2 levels in aged mice and rejuvenates the skeletal muscle by increasing muscle mass and augmenting mitochondria biogenesis and function. Minas and colleagues hypothesized that PGE2 might improve the muscular response of aged mice tochallenging exercise, a form of muscle damage. They tested whether inhibiting 15-PGDH could overcome the reduced skeletal muscle overload response observed in aging mice. They performed a tenotomy on the Achilles tendon to induce muscle overload in young and aged mouse plantaris muscles. Mice were treated daily for 2 weeks with 15-PGDH small molecule inhibitor (SW) or with vehicle. In contrast to young mice, in aged mice SW significantly increased  strength in overloaded muscle relative to controls. These data identify a potential therapeutic strategy to restore the capacity of aged muscle to increase muscle mass and function in response to stress.

Keynote Speakers:

• Giulio Cossu, University of Manchester, UK
• Mayana Zatz, Instituto de Biociências, Brazil

Other speakers:

• Atsushi Asakura, University of Minnesota Medical School, USA
• Anton Bennett, Yale University, USA
• Thomas Braun, Max-Planck-Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany
• Elizabeth Chen, UT Southwestern, USA
• Jeff Dilworth, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
• Penney Gilbert, University of Toronto, Canada
• Clarissa Henry, University of Maine, USA
• Sujatha Jagannathan, University of Colorado, USA
• Minchul Kim, Strasbourg University, France
• Robert Krauss, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,  USA
• Julia von Maltzahn, Leibniz Institute of Aging, Germany
• Doug Millay, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA
• Pura Munoz-Canoves, Altos Labs Inc, USA
• Brad Olwin, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
• Rita Perlingeiro, University of Minnesota, USA
• Charlotte Peterson, University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences, USA
• Pier Lorenzo Puri, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute,  USA 
• April Pyle, University of California Los Angeles, USA
• Frederic Relaix, Paris Est-Creteil University,  France 
• Fabio Rossi, University of British Columbia, Canada
• Michael Rudnicki, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada
• Alessandra Sacco, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute,  USA
• Vittorio Sartorelli, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, NIH, USA
• Frank Schnorrer, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, France
• Eileen Shore, University of Pennsylvania, USA
• Francesco Saverio Tedesco, University College London, UK
• Will Wang, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, USA
• Peter Zammit, King’s College London, UK