In some rodent skeletal muscles, hindlimb non-weight-bearing activity induces a shift in the expression of myosin heavy chains (MHCs) that favors the type II isoforms at the expense of type I. Chemically induced chronic creatine depletion results in isomyosin shifts favoring expression of type I MHCs. In this study, creatine depletion was induced separately and in combination with non-weight-bearing activity to determine if the response to lowering this metabolite would counter the MHC transitions expected from non-weight bearing. Creatine depletion was induced by feeding rats a diet supplemented with the creatine analogue beta-guanidinopropionic acid (beta-GPA). Female Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 247 +/- 8 g were randomly assigned to four groups: 1) normal diet control, 2) beta-GPA control (BC), 3) normal diet suspended (NS), and 4) beta-GPA suspended (BS). BC and BS animals were fed a diet containing the creatine analogue for 68 days. Hindlimb non-weight bearing in BS and NS animals was accomplished by tail suspension for the final 30 days of this period. beta-GPA feeding lowered the creatine content of muscles sampled by 65%. Creatine depletion resulted in a 16% increase in citrate synthase activity in the soleus (SOL) and a 24% increase in the plantaris (PLN). In two postural muscles, the SOL and vastus intermedius (VI), tail suspension resulted in large decreases in the type I MHC expression and increases in type IIx and IIb MHCs. In two locomotor muscles, the PLN and medial gastrocnemius, type I MHC declined and type IIb increased with suspension.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscles are undifferentiated after birth as to their contractile protein phenotype. Thus we examined the separate and combined effects of spaceflight (SF) and thyroid deficiency (TD) on myosin heavy chain (MHC) gene expression (protein and mRNA) in muscles of neonatal rats (7 and 14 days of age at launch) exposed to SF for 16 days. Spaceflight markedly reduced expression of the slow, type I MHC gene by approximately 55%, whereas it augmented expression of the fast IIx and IIb MHCs in antigravity skeletal muscles. In fast muscles, SF caused subtle increases in the fast IIb MHC relative to the other adult MHCs. In contrast, TD prevented the normal expression of the fast MHC phenotype, particularly the IIb MHC, whereas TD maintained expression of the embryonic/neonatal MHC isoforms; this response occurred independently of gravity. Collectively, these results suggest that normal expression of the type I MHC gene requires signals associated with weight-bearing activity, whereas normal expression of the IIb MHC requires an intact thyroid state acting independently of the weight-bearing activities typically encountered during neonatal development of laboratory rodents. Finally, MHC expression in developing muscles is chiefly regulated by pretranslational processes based on the tight relationship between the MHC protein and mRNA data.