Muscle inactive state is necessary to remove damaged proteins accumulated by repeated muscle contraction

Background: Contractile activity stimulates hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. Under such condition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) is produced. Paradoxically, excessive ROS is known to cause oxidative damage to cellular proteins and muscle atrophy. There remains a lot to understand about muscle contractile activity and muscle response to manage the oxidative damage. To address this question, we made a cultured myotube model which shows hypertrophy and atrophy by controlling contractile activity.