UBIQUITIN GENE-EXPRESSION IN SKELETAL-MUSCLE IS INCREASED BY TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR-ALPHA

An acute intravenous administration of 100 mu g/kg body weight of reco mbinant tumour necrosis factor-alpha resulted in a time-dependent incr ease in the levels of ubiquitin mRNAs in rat skeletal muscle. The resu lts presented here, together with previous observations demonstrating that the cytokine increases the conjugation of proteins with ubiquitin in rat skeletal muscle (1), suggest that the ubiquitin system for non -lysosomal protein degradation could have a very important role in the mechanism triggered by tumour necrosis factor-alpha which is responsi ble for enhanced muscle proteolysis in sepsis and other pathological s tates. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.