EGF receptor (EGFR) inhibition promotes a slow-twitch oxidative, over a fast-twitch, muscle phenotype.

A low quadriceps slow-twitch (ST), oxidative (relative to fast-twitch) fiber proportion is prevalent in chronic diseases such Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and is associated with exercise limitation and poor outcomes. Benefits of an increased ST fiber proportion are demonstrated in genetically modified animals. Pathway analysis of published data of differentially expressed genes in mouse ST and FT fibers, mining of our microarray data and a qPCR analysis of quadriceps specimens from COPD patients and controls were performed.

Sex differences in COPD-related quadriceps muscle dysfunction and fibre abnormalities.

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower limb dysfunction is associated with reduced exercise capacity, increased hospitalizations and mortality. We investigated sex differences in the prevalence of quadriceps dysfunction and fibre abnormalities in a large COPD cohort, controlling for the normal sex differences in health. We compared existing data from 76 male and 38 female COPD patients where each variable was expressed as a function of gender-specific normal values (obtained from 16 male and 14 female controls).

Conformation-specific crosslinking of mitochondrial complex I.

Complex I is the only component of the eukaryotic respiratory chain of which no high-resolution structure is yet available. A notable feature of mitochondrial complex I is the so-called active/de-active conformational transition of the idle enzyme from the active (A) to the de-active, (D) form. Using an amine- and sulfhydryl-reactive crosslinker of 6.