Journal Article Epublish
PubMed: 40801622 DOI: 10.3390/cells14151190
From Development to Regeneration: Insights into Flight Muscle Adaptations from Bat Muscle Cell Lines.
Cells 14(15)
Authors: Fengyan Deng, Valentina Peña, Pedro Morales-Sosa, Andrea Bernal-Rivera, Bowen Yang, Shengping Huang, Sonia Ghosh, Maria Katt, Luciana Andrea Castellano, Lucinda Maddera, Zulin Yu, Nicolas Rohner, Chongbei Zhao, Jasmin Camacho
Affiliations
- Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA.
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
- Institute for Integrative Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
Abstract
Skeletal muscle regeneration depends on muscle stem cells, which give rise to myoblasts that drive muscle growth, repair, and maintenance. In bats-the only mammals capable of powered flight-these processes must also sustain contractile performance under extreme mechanical and metabolic stress. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying bat muscle physiology remain largely unknown. To enable mechanistic investigation of these traits, we established the first myoblast cell lines from the pectoralis muscle of Pteronotus mesoamericanus, a highly maneuverable aerial insectivore. Using both spontaneous immortalization and exogenous hTERT/CDK4 gene overexpression, we generated two stable cell lines that retain proliferative capacity and differentiate into contractile myotubes. These cells exhibit frequent spontaneous contractions, suggesting robust functional integrity at the neuromuscular junction. In parallel, we performed transcriptomic and metabolic profiling of native pectoralis tissue in the closely related Pteronotus parnellii to define molecular programs supporting muscle specialization. Gene expression analyses revealed enriched pathways for muscle metabolism, development, and regeneration, highlighting supporting roles in tissue maintenance and repair. Consistent with this profile, the flight muscle is triglyceride-rich, which serves as an important fuel source for energetically demanding processes, including muscle contraction and cellular recovery. Integration of transcriptomic and metabolic data identified three key metabolic modules-glucose utilization, lipid handling, and nutrient signaling-that likely coordinate ATP production and support metabolic flexibility. Together, these complementary tools and datasets provide the first in vitro platform for investigating bat muscle research, enabling direct exploration of muscle regeneration, metabolic resilience, and evolutionary physiology.
MeSH
Cells, Genes, Physiology, Muscle Cells, Muscles, Myoblasts, Maintenance, Cell Line, Tissues, Muscle Fibers, Skeletal