Metabolic suppression by 3-iodothyronamine induced muscle cell atrophy via activation of FoxO-proteasome signaling and downregulation of Akt1-S6K signaling

The homeostasis of muscle properties depends on both physical and metabolic stresses. Whereas physical stress entails metabolic response for muscle homeostasis, the latter does not necessarily involve the former and may thus solely affect the homeostasis. We here report that metabolic suppression by the hypometabolic agent 3-iodothyronamine (T1AM) induced muscle cell atrophy without physical stress. We observed that the oxygen consumption rate of C2C12 myotubes decreased 40% upon treatment with 75 μM T1AM for 6 h versus 10% in the vehicle (dimethyl sulfoxide) control. The T1AM treatment reduced cell diameter of myotubes by 15% compared to the control (p<0.05). The cell diameter was reversed completely by 9 h after T1AM was removed. The T1AM treatment also significantly suppressed the expression levels of heat shock protein 72 and αB-crystallin as well as the phosphorylation levels of Akt1, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), S6K, forkhead box O1 (FoxO1) and FoxO3. In contrast, the levels of ubiquitin E3 ligase MuRF1 and chymotrypsin-like activity of proteasome were significantly elevated by T1AM treatment. These results suggest that T1AM-mediated metabolic suppression induced muscle cell atrophy via activation of catabolic signaling and inhibition of anabolic signaling.