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Muscle growth learns new tricks from an old dog

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 1016–1018 (2007)Cite this article

The S6K1 kinase lies downstream of a signaling network crucial for muscle hypertrophy. It now seems that S6K1 also interacts with another kinase—AMPK—to integrate muscle-cell growth with metabolic regulation.

The first lesson you learn in economy is: you can't spend more than what you have. Well, you actually can, but, from a biological perspective, this could mean waste and even death. One example of biological economy is the regulation of an organism's growth. Organ size is tightly coupled to nutrient availability—growth is slowed if the nutrient supply is limited. This equation seems intuitively simple: no energy, no growth. But how did nature develop such a logical control mechanism? The answer is straightforward: put together a fuel sensor and link it to effectors of cell growth and, voilá, you've got an efficient metabolic machine.

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Figure 1: Simplified model of the role of S6K1 in the integration of anabolic and metabolic processes.

Katie Ris-Vicari

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gustavo A. Nader is at the Research Center for Genetic Medicine, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC 20010, USA. gnader@cnmcresearch.org,

    Gustavo A Nader

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  1. Gustavo A Nader
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Nader, G. Muscle growth learns new tricks from an old dog. Nat Med 13, 1016–1018 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0907-1016

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