Effect of ATF4 gene knockout on skeletal muscle mRNA levels in fasted mice.

ATF4 is a fasting-induced trascription factor that promotes skeletal muscle atrophy. The goal of these studies was to determine how of loss of ATF4 affects skeletal muscle mRNA expression. For additional details see Ebert et al, Stress-Induced Skeletal Muscle Gadd45a Expression Reprograms Myonuclei and Causes Muscle Atrophy. JBC epub. June 12, 2012. Muscle-specfic ATF4 knockout (ATF4 mKO) mice and littermate controls were fasted for 24 hours and then tibialis anterior muscles were harvested. mRNA levels in ATF4 mKO muscles were normalized to levels in littermate control muscles.