Specific Effect of Corticoids Receptor Expression in Rat Cell Cultures on Acetylcholine Skeletal Muscle

The potential effect of different classes of steroids on the expression of acetylcholine receptors (AChR) was studied in different primary cultures of newborn-rat skeletal muscle cells. Comparison among three tech- niques for preparing newborn skeletal muscle cells showed that these systems were equivalent to study AChR expression. Only corticoids stimulated myo- genesis as a twofold increase in AChR expression in- dicated. Among the corticoids, the glucocorticoids were the more potent, whereas the mineralocorticoid aldosterone had less marked effect. The sex hormones progesterone and testosterone partially blocked these effects, without inducing any significant effect when given alone. The steroids tested differed in efficacy in correlation with their different chemical structures. Among the glucocorticoids a clear structure-activity relationship could be established. These results em- phasize the specificity of corticoid action on muscle cells and suggest an explanation for the effects in- duced by glucocorticoids used in treating human muscular or neuromuscular diseases. Key words: steroids; glucocorticoids; myogenesis; nicotinic cholinergic receptors, expression