Remarkable preservation of Ca2+ homeostasis and inhibition of apoptosis contribute to anti-muscle atrophy effect in hibernating Daurian ground squirrels

The underlying mechanisms that hibernators deviated from muscle atrophy during prolonged hibernating inactivity remain elusive. This study tested the hypothesis that the maintenance of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and inhibition of apoptosis would be responsible for preventing muscle atrophy in hibernating Daurian ground squirrels. The results showed that intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis was maintained in soleus and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) in hibernation and post-hibernation, while cytosolic Ca2+ was overloaded in gastrocnemius ( GAS) in hibernation with a recovery in post-hibernation. The Ca2+ overload was also observed in interbout arousals in all three type muscles. Besides, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was unchanged in transcriptional level among pre-hibernation, hibernation and interbout arousals, and reduced to a minimum in post-hibernation. Furthermore, the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in protein level was reduced in hibernation but recovered in interbout arousals. Although cytochrome C was increased in GAS and EDL in post-hibernation, no apoptosis was observed by TUNEL assay. These findings suggested that the intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis in hibernation might be regulated by the cytosolic Ca2+ overload during interbout arousals, which were likely responsible for preventing muscle atrophy via inhibition of apoptosis. Moreover, the muscle-specificity indicated that the different mechanisms against disuse-induced atrophy might be involved in different muscles in hibernation.