Novel Role for the Voltage Gated Calcium Channel β1a Subunit in Myoblasts

JACKSON TAYLOR; TAN ZHANG; CLAUDIA B. HEREÑÚ ,; OSVALDO DELBONO

San Francisco

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society; 2010

•Voltage gated calcium channel β Subunits (Cavβ) have been described almost exclusively as regulators of voltage gated Department of Histology, National University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina3 A Results: Background •Cavβ1a null mice are embryonic lethal, which is attributed to the resulting lack of functional voltage gated calcium channels (CaV1.1) and subsequent failure of muscle contraction (Gregg et al., 1996). •Other Cavβ isoforms have been shown to have multiple binding partners, including the family of proteins (Beguin et al,. 2001). RGK proteins are involved in both voltage gated calcium channel regulation and cytoskeletal remodeling. •Cavβ1a is overexpressed in aging skeletal muscle (Taylor et al., 2009), a hallmark of which is impaired progenitor cell function. Hypothesis: Cavβ1a is expressed in muscle progenitor cells, where it serves alternate cellular functions