Submission Date

4-22-2018

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Health & Exercise Physiology

Adviser

April Carpenter

Committee Member

Deborah Feairheller

Committee Member

Stephen Kolwicz

Committee Member

Carlita Favero

Department Chair

Del Engstrom

Project Description

Few treatments for muscle injury exist. The treatments that do exist are aimed at limiting pain and inflammation. However, recent evidence demonstrates that inflammatory cells speed healing after injury. Following injury, macrophages, which are key inflammatory cells, arrive to the site of injury and produce growth factors. Our lab has shown that wnt proteins, known growth factors, are upregulated in the tibialis anterior muscle following injury coinciding with macrophage infiltration. Wnt proteins induce proliferation and differentiation of cells, which is essential to new muscle cell formation. We examined the effects of wnt signaling on muscle injury by genetically deleting wntless (wls), a protein responsible for the release of wnt proteins from macrophages. The deletion of wls from macrophages has previously been confirmed in our lab. We then analyzed the role of macrophage-produced wnts on the formation of new skeletal muscle fibers after chemical injury. We hypothesized that wnt proteins produced from macrophages are important for muscle healing.

Comments

Additional committee member: Catherine Van de Ruit

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