The adult skeletal muscle has a tremendous capacity for repair and regeneration upon injury, owing to the resident muscle stem cells or satellite cells (MuSCs). Using a combination of in vitro satellite cell culture and a mouse muscle injury model, our lab has uncovered essential roles of mTOR in controlling multiple stages of the myogenic process, and dissected an elaborate signaling network that involves many protein players as well as miRNAs. These mechanistic insights can potentially impact therapeutic developments to boost muscle regenerative capacity and muscle health in aging and diseases.
Erbay and J. Chen (2001) The mammalian target of rapamycin regulates C2C12 myogenesis via a kinase-independent mechanism, J. Biol. Chem. (accelerated publication) 276, 36079-82. Link to article
Erbay, I.-H. Park, P. Nuzzi, C.J. Schoenherr and J. Chen (2003) IGF-II transcription in skeletal myogenesis is controlled by mTOR and nutrients, J. Cell Biol. 163, 931-6. Link to article
I.-H. Park, E. Erbay, P. Nuzzi and J. Chen (2005) Skeletal myocyte hypertrophy requires mTOR kinase activity and S6K1, Exp. Cell Res. 309, 211-9.
I.-H. Park and J. Chen (2005) Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) Signaling Is Required for a Late-stage Fusion Process during Skeletal Myotube Maturation, J. Biol. Chem. 280, 32009-17. Link to article
M.-S. Yoon and J. Chen (2008) PLD regulates myoblast differentiation through the mTOR—IGF-II pathway, J. Cell Sci., 121, 282-9.
Ge, A.-L. Wu, C. Warnes, J. Liu, C. Zhang, H. Kawasome, N. Terada, M. Boppart, C. J. Schoenherr and J. Chen (2009) mTOR regulates skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo through kinase-dependent and kinase-independent mechanisms, Am. J. Physiol. Cell. Physiol., 297, 1434. (PMC2793064). Link to article
Ge, Y. Sun and J. Chen, (2011) IGF-II is regulated by microRNA125b in skeletal myogenesis, J. Cell Biol. 192, 69-81. (PMC3019547). Link to article
Ge and J. Chen, (2011) MicroRNAs in skeletal myogenesis, Cell Cycle 10, 441-448.
Y. Ge, M.-S. Yoon, and J. Chen, (2011) Raptor and Rheb negatively regulate skeletal myogenesis through suppression of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1), J. Biol. Chem., 286, 35675-82. (PMC3195566).
Ge and J. Chen, (2012) mTOR signaling network in skeletal myogenesis, J. Biol. Chem. 287, 43928-35. (PMC3527976) [One of the most downloaded papers at JBC in 2013.]. Link to article
Khanna, Y. Fang, M.-S. Yoon, and J. Chen, (2013) XPLN is an endogenous inhibitor of mTORC2. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 110, 15979-84. (direct submission) (PMC3791717). Link to article
M.-S. Yoon and J. Chen, (2013) Distinct amino acid-sensing mTOR pathways regulate skeletal myogenesis, Mol. Biol. Cell, 24, 3754-63. (PMC3843001).
Khanna, Y. Ge, and J. Chen, (2014) MicroRNA-146b promotes myogenic differentiation and modulates multiple gene targets in muscle cells, PLoS One, 9, e100657. (PMC3791717).
K. Son, J.-S. You, M.S. Yoon, C. Dai, J.H. Kim, N. Khanna, A. Banerjee, S.A. Martinis, G. Han, J.M. Han, S. Kim, J. Chen, (2019) Nontranslational function of leucyl-tRNA synthetase regulates myogenic differentiation and skeletal muscle regeneration. J Clin Invest. 130, 2088-2093. Link to article