Myostatin (MSTN) is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth and development.  The skeletal muscle in MSTN–/– mice is significantly hypertrophied, with muscle fiber type II increasing significantly while muscle fiber type I decreasing.  However, it is still not clear how the skeletal muscle types change in MSTN^–/– pigs, and how the mechanism for MSTN regulates fiber types, especially in large animals like pigs.  This study conducted a comprehensive analysis of the composition of skeletal muscle fibers in MSTN^–/– pigs produced in our laboratory.  It was observed that, compared with wild-type (WT) pigs, both the total mass of skeletal muscle and type IIb muscle fibers increased significantly (P<0.01), while the type I and type IIa muscle fibers decreased significantly (P<0.01), in MSTN^–/– Meishan pigs.  In addition, to explore the influence of MSTN on muscle fiber type and its regulation mechanism in the embryonic stage, this study selected a few genes (Myf5, Mef2d, MyoD and Six1) associated with muscle fiber type and validated their expression by quantitative RT-PCR.  Herein, it was found that Myh7, Myh2, Myh4 and Myh1 can be detected in the skeletal muscle of pigs at 65 days of gestation (dg).  Compared with WT pigs, in MSTN^–/– Meishan pigs, Myh7 decreased significantly (P<0.01), while Myh4 (P<0.001) and Myh1 (P<0.05) increased significantly.  Meanwhile, the increased expression of Myf5 (P<0.05), Mef2d (P<0.01) and Six1 (P<0.05) in MSTN^–/– Meishan pigs suggested that MSTN should regulate the directional development of muscle fiber types in the early stage of embryonic development.  Thus, at the embryonic stage, the type II muscle fibers began to increase in MSTN^–/– pigs.  These results can provide valuable information not only for pig meat quality improvement, but also for the study of human skeletal muscle development and disease treatment.  

    Myostatin, a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) superfamily, is a dominant inhibitor that acts to limit skeletal muscle growth and development. In this study, we generated transgenic mice that express porcine myostatin containg mutations at its cleavage site (RSRR) to evaluate its effect on muscle mass. Results showed that the weight of four skeletal muscles including gastrocnemius, rectus femoris, tibialis anterior, and pectoralis increased by 17.83 and 28.39%, 21.76 and 28.70%, 34.31 and 41.62%, 53.21 and 27.54% in transgenic male and female mice, respectively, compared to their corresponding non-transgenic control mice. Measurement of muscle fiber size and number indicated that the mean myofiber size increased by 50.73 and 61.30% in transgenic male and female mice respectively compared to the non-transgenic controls. However, there was no difference in the number of myofiber between transgenic and non-transgenic male mice. These results clearly demonstrated that the increase in skeletal muscle mass in transgenic mice is caused by hypertrophy instead of hyperplasia.