Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals 17β-Estradiol Treatment Represses Ubiquitin-Proteasomal Mediators in Skeletal Muscle of Ovariectomized Mice.

With a decline of 17β-estradiol (E2) at menopause, E2 has been implicated in the accompanied loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. We aimed at characterizing transcriptomic responses of skeletal muscle to E2 in female mice, testing the hypothesis that genes and pathways related to contraction and maintenance of mass are differentially expressed in ovariectomized mice with and without E2 treatment.

Soleus and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles from C57BL/6 ovariectomized mice treated with placebo (OVX) or E2 (OVX + E2) for 60 days, or from skeletal muscle-specific ERα knockout (skmERαKO) mice and wild-type littermates (skmERαWT), were used for genome-wide expression profiling, quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting. Computational detection of estrogen response elements (EREs) was performed with EREFINDER.

We found 155 significantly regulated probe sets in response to E2 (p ≤ 0.001). Pathway analyses identified proteasome and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis as two downregulated pathways in the E2 group.

We confirmed downregulation (p ≤ 0.05) in levels of Fbxw7, Psmb6, Ube2h and Ubxn1, as well as pro-apoptotic Bnip3 and inflammatory factor Nfkbia. Computational analysis identified ERE in the promoter regions of Psmb6, Ube2h, Bnip3 and Nfkbia.

The overall content of ubiquitinated proteins was modestly but significantly lower in TA muscles from OVX + E2 vs. OVX mice (p = 0.039).

There were no differences between skmERαKO and skmERαWT mice or between skmERαKO/OVX and skmERαKO/OVX + E2 mice for any genes assessed, indicating that ERα is required for E2 regulation of those genes. These results suggest that a mechanism whereby E2 protects against losses of skeletal muscle mass and strength is regulation of ubiquitin-proteasomal mediators.