Insight into the role of myokines and myogenic regulatory factors under hypobaric hypoxia induced skeletal muscle loss

Background The present study aimed to analyse the role of myokines and the regeneration capacity of skeletal muscle during chronic hypobaric hypoxia (CHH). Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to hypobaric hypoxia (HH) for 1d, 3d and 7d. Results Exposure to HH enhanced the levels of decorin, irisin, IL-6 and IL-15 till 3 days of hypoxia and on 7 day of exposure, no significant changes were observed in relation to control. A significant upregulation in myostatin, activated protein kinase, SMAD3, SMAD4, FOXO-1, MURF-1 expression was observed with prolonged HH exposure as compared to normoxic control. Further, myogenesis-related markers, PAX-7, Cyclin D1 and myogenin were downregulated during CHH exposure in comparison to control. Energy metabolism regulators such as Sirtuin 1, proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha and GLUT-4, were also increased on 1-d HH exposure that showed a declining trend on CHH exposure. Conclusions These results indicated the impairment in the levels of myokines and myogenesis during prolonged hypoxia. CHH exposure enhanced the levels of myostatin and reduced the regeneration or repair capacity of the skeletal muscles. Myokine levels could be a predictive biomarker for evaluating skeletal muscle performance and loss at high altitudes.