Small-RNA sequencing reveals altered skeletal muscle microRNAs and snoRNAs signatures in weanling male offspring from mouse dams fed a low protein diet during lactation

Ioannis Kanakis, Moussira Alameddine, Leighton Folkes, Simon Moxon, Ioanna Myrtziou, Susan Ozanne, Mandy Peffers, Katarzyna Goljanek-Whysall, Aphrodite Vasilaki

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Abstract

Maternal diet during gestation and lactation affects the development of skeletal muscles in offspring and determines muscle health in later life. In this paper, we describe the association between maternal low protein diet-induced changes in offspring skeletal muscle and the differential expression (DE) of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). We used a mouse model of maternal protein restriction, where dams were fed either a normal (N, 20%) or a low protein (L, 8%) diet during gestation and newborns were cross-fostered to N or L lactating dams, resulting in the generation of NN, NL and LN offspring groups. Total body and tibialis anterior (TA) weights were decreased in weanling NL male offspring but were not different in the LN group, as compared to NN. However, histological evaluation of TA muscle revealed reduced muscle fibre size in both groups at weaning. Small RNA-sequencing demonstrated DE of multiple miRs, snoRNAs and snRNAs. Bioinformatic analyses of miRs-15a, -34a, -122 and -199a, in combination with known myomiRs, confirmed their implication in key muscle-specific biological processes. This is the first comprehensive report for the DE of sncRNAs in nutrition-associated programming of skeletal muscle development, highlighting the need for further research to unravel the detailed molecular mechanisms.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1166
Number of pages22
JournalCells
Volume10
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2021

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