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Muscle Tissue in Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism

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Thyroid, Obesity and Metabolism

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Abstract

Skeletal muscle (SM) metabolism is strictly controlled by both thyroid hormones and insulin action.

SM plasticity gives the muscle the ability to regenerate after a damage thanks to proliferation, fusion, and differentiation of resident, undifferentiated, mononuclear satellite cells (SCs).

The transcription factor paired box 7 (Pax7) represents a marker of quiescent satellite stem cells (Pax7+) in skeletal muscle, while skeletal muscle-specific myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs: MyoD, myogenin, MYF-5, MRF4) drive muscle differentiation.

Based on the molecular marker expression, myoblasts fuse with damaged myofibers to repair them or fuse together to generate new multinucleated myofibers, and new self-renewed satellite cells to maintain their own population.

Thyroid plays an important role in muscle tissue contraction, formation, and repair regulation, mediated by both blood and local tissue concentration of thyroid hormones (TH: thyroxine or T4 and triiodothyronine or T3) modulated by TH transporters/receptors efficiency and by enzyme deiodinase (DIO2, DIO3) activity.

DIO3 supports the proliferation of myoblasts and is essential for the stem cell activation program, and DIO2 plays a critical role in differentiation and fusion process to form the muscle fibers.

Duration and extent of thyroid hormone deficiency are often correlated with severity of muscle pain. In this contest, hypothyroid myopathy represents the most important clinical problem consequent to mitochondrial dysfunction associated with fiber switch, fast muscle fibers loss, and muscle insulin resistance.

Muscle weakness, exacerbation of muscle fatigue, and exercise intolerance characterize both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism is also associated with vision loss and thyrotoxic periodic paralysis with serious cardiopulmonary complications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Ileana Terruzzi

  2. Department of Endocrinology, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, IRCCS MultiMedica, Milan, Italy

    Ileana Terruzzi

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    Livio Luzi

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Terruzzi, I. (2021). Muscle Tissue in Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism. In: Luzi, L. (eds) Thyroid, Obesity and Metabolism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80267-7_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80267-7_12

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