Skeletal muscle growth is regulated by several factors, including resistance exercise, anabolic hormones and nutrition. It is unequivocal that specific nutrients can regulate the growth of skeletal muscle, either alone or in combination with resistance exercise. For example, dietary proteins and amino acids, omega 3 fatty acids, and carbohydrate can stimulate muscle protein synthesis while also suppressing proteolysis. Nutrients like Ca, Vitamins D, C, and E, creatine, resveratrol, selenium and others can also regulate muscle protein metabolism. Although mechanisms regulating formation of muscle cells, either during development or muscle repair/regeneration postnatally are well understood, not much is known about the link between nutrients and formation of new muscle cells.
The focus of this Research Topic is to assemble articles that address this issue. This collection would not only shed light on the state of knowledge on the subject but may also highlight promising targets that can be used to promote muscle regeneration.
We encourage you to present the problem that you would like to tackle in this Research topic and what can be done to achieve it including recent advances. Questions that we want to address include (original articles but also reviews):
a) What is the state of knowledge in our understanding of how muscle development and repair are regulated ?
b) Cellular proteins are replaced by different sets of proteins (for example myofibrillar proteins need to be synthesized as myotubes are formed). Do nutrients regulate formation of myofibrillar proteins?
c) Is nutrient (amino acids, lipids, carbohydrate) metabolism altered during myotube formation and myogenesis? Is any such alteration linked to the regulation of factors (for example, myogenic regulatory factors, MRFs) that control myotube formation and myogenesis?
d) Is there evidence that specific nutrients and/or their metabolites can drive myotube formation and muscle repair, and is there a promise that such might improve recovery following muscle damage?
Subtopics of interest:
• Prenatal muscle development and postnatal muscle regeneration: similarities and differences
• Regulation of muscle cell formation and link to muscle regeneration
• Macro and micronutrients in the regulation of muscle formation and repair
• Alterations in nutrient metabolism and link to muscle regeneration
• Are conditions associated with impaired nutrient metabolism (e.g., insulin resistance, obesity, maple syrup urine disease, etc) associated with impairment in muscle repair and regeneration?
Note for contributing authors who would like to consider the Nutrition and Metabolism section of Frontiers in Nutrition for their submission: the section welcomes manuscripts with a focus on human studies. Rodent and cell studies can be allowed when they are clearly linked to human relevance and when this is also addressed in the discussion. 