Effect of maternal myostatin antibody on offspring growth performance and body c

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J Exp Biol. 2007 Feb 1;210(Pt 3):477-83.

Effect of maternal myostatin antibody on offspring growth

performance and body composition in mice.

Liang YC, Yeh JY, Ou BR.

Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Tunghai University,

Taichung 407, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Myostatin (GDF8) is a member of the transforming growth factor beta

(TGF-beta) superfamily. The finding that animals with a knockout or

mutation of the myostatin-encoding gene show increased muscle mass

suggests that myostatin negatively regulates muscle growth. The

study reported here was designed to investigate the effect of

induction of maternal myostatin antibody on the growth performance

and body composition of the mouse.

Female mice were induced to produce myostatin antibody by

immunization with synthetic myostatin peptide prior to mating with

male mice. The body masses of offspring were measured weekly and the

body compositions of offspring were determined at 8 weeks of age.

The results showed that myostatin antibody was detected in both

immunized female mice and their 8-week-old offspring.

The growth performance of offspring from the myostatin antibody-

induced (mstn Ab-induced) group was higher than that from the

control group at 8 weeks of age. The body composition of both male

and female offspring from the mstn Ab-induced group contained higher

crude protein and lower crude fat than those from the control group

(P<0.05).

The litter number from the maternal mstn Ab-induced group was less

than that from control mice, while embryo development was normal in

both groups. However, the amount of developing follicle in ovaries

of the mstn Ab-induced group was lower than that in the control

group.

It is concluded that induction of maternal mstn Ab enhances the

growth performance of offspring and influences the offspring body

composition by increasing the crude protein and reducing crude fat.