Steroid effects on cell proliferation, differentiation and steroid receptor gene expression in adult bovine satellite cells

The present study was conducted to establish primary bovine muscle satellite cell (MSC) culture conditions and to investigate the effects of various steroid hormones on transcription of the genes involved in muscle cell proliferation and differentiation. Of three different types of proteases (type II collagenase, pronase and trypsin-EDTA) used to hydrolyze the myogenic satellite cells from muscle tissues, trypsin-EDTA treatment yielded the highest number of cells. The cells separated by hydrolysis with type 11 collagenase and incubated on gelatin-coated plates showed an enhanced cell attachment onto the culture plate and cell proliferation at an initial stage of cell growth. In this study, the bovine MSCs were maintained in vitro up to passage 16 without revealing any significant morphological change, and even to when the cells died at passage 21 with decreased or almost no cell growth or deformities. When the cells were incubated in a steroid-depleted environment (DMEM(-)/10% CDFBS (charcoal-dextran stripped FBS)), they grew slowly initially, and were widened and deformed. In addition, when the cells were transferred to an incubation medium containing steroid (DMEM(+)/10% FBS), the deformed cells resumed their growth and returned to a normal morphology, suggesting that steroid hormones are crucial in maintaining normal MSC morphology and growth. The results demonstrated that treatments with 19-nortestosterone and testosterone significantly increased AR gene expression (p < 0.05), implying that both testosterone and 19-nortestosterone bind with AR and that the hormone bound-AR complex up-regulates the genes of its own receptor (AR) plus other genes involved in satellite cell growth and differentiation in bovine muscle.