Esophageal striated muscle hypertrophy and muscle fiber type transformation in MSTN knockout pigs

Myostatin (MSTN) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily that inhibits skeletal muscle growth and development. The esophagus is composed of skeletal muscle and smooth muscle, but the effect of MSTN on esophagus striated muscle (ESM) is unknown. The present study investigated the role of MSTN in ESM using MSTN mutant pigs through histological, gene and protein expression analysis in ESM of MSTN knockout ( MSTN −/− ) pigs and their wild type (WT) littermates. Hematoxylin–eosin staining showed that the fiber cross-sectional areas in ESM of MSTN −/− pigs were significantly larger than WT pigs ( P