Targeted inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor signaling prevents muscle fiber growth during skeletal muscle hypertrophy

The platelet-derived growth-factor receptors alpha and beta (PDGFRα and PDGFRβ) mark fibroblasts and pericytes in skeletal muscle, respectively. While the role that these cells play in muscle growth has been evaluated, it was not known whether the receptors that mark these cells play a role in controlling transcriptional and functional changes during skeletal muscle hypertrophy. To evaluate this, we inhibited PDGFR signaling in mice subjected to a synergist ablation muscle growth procedure, and measured changes 3 and 10 days later. The results indicated that PDGF signaling was required for fiber hypertrophy and ECM production that occur during muscle growth. 10 pooled samples total. Equal amounts of RNA isolated from four individual muscles were pooled into a single sample for microarray analysis, and two pooled samples from each group were analyzed. RNA was pooled because gene expression from a pooled sample is similar to the average of the individual samples composing the pooled sample.