Apoptosis is present in skeletal muscle of cachectic gastro-intestinal cancer patients

Background & aims Previous studies of our research group have shown that apoptosis is present in skeletal muscle of tumour-bearing animals subject to cachexia. For this reason we decided to investigate the apoptosis in skeletal muscle of cancer patients. Methods and results In the present study, muscle biopsies from weight-losing patients with upper gastro-intestinal cancer showed a significant increase in muscle DNA fragmentation (three-fold), as compared with control subjects. The increase in DNA laddering was associated with an increase in poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage (four-fold) as measured by western blotting. These two events indicate the presence of muscle apoptosis. These changes were associated with a decrease in MyoD protein content, suggesting important alterations in skeletal muscle physiology. Conclusions The results presented therefore confirm that apoptosis is also present in human subjects undergoing cancer cachexia.