Apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC) inhibits myogenic differentiation

Apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC), an anti-apoptotic protein, is highly expressed in differentiated heart and skeletal muscle. Apoptosis and differentiation share numerous common pathways; therefore, we examined the impact of ARC on H9c2-myoblast differentiation. We demonstrate that ARC expression levels increase and stabilize upon differentiation. ARC-overexpression in pre-differentiated H9c2-cells suppresses differentiation; indicated by increased myotube formation, nuclear fusion and expression of the differentiation markers myogenin and troponin-T. ARC-overexpression inhibited myoblast differentiation associated caspase-3 activation, suggesting ARC inhibits myogenic differentiation through caspase inhibition. In summary, we show a novel role for ARC in the regulation of muscle differentiation.