Gene expression analysis of Ncor1 muscle-specific knockout and PGC-1alpha muscle-specific transgenic skeletal muscle

In the present study we have studied the mechanistic and functional aspects of NCoR1 function in mouse skeletal muscle. NCoR1 muscle-specific knockout mice exhibited an increased oxidative metabolism. Global gene expression analysis revealed a high overlap between the effects of NCoR1 deletion and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC-1alpha) overexpression on oxidative metabolism in skeletal muscle. The repressive effect of NCoR1 on oxidative phosphorylation gene expression specifically antagonizes PGC-1alpha-mediated coactivation of ERRalpha. We therefore delineated the molecular mechanism by which a transcriptional network controlled by corepressor and coactivator proteins determines the metabolic properties of skeletal muscle, thus representing a potential therapeutic target for metabolic diseases. Gene expression of a total of 20 gastrocnemius samples from control (CON, n = 5), NCoR1 muscle-specific knockout (NCoR1 MKO, n = 5), wild type (WT, n = 5) and PGC-1alpha muscle-specific transgenic (PGC-1alpha mTg, n = 5) adult male mice was analyzed using GeneChip® Gene 1.0 ST Array System (Affymetrix). NCoR1 MKO and PGC-1alpha mTg samples were compared to CON and WT samples, respectively.