Myofiber-specific FoxP1 knockout protects against pancreatic cancer-induced muscle wasting in male but not female mice.

Abstract

Cancer cachexia affects up to 80% of cancer patients and results in reduced quality of life and survival. We previously demonstrated that the transcriptional repressor Forkhead box P1 (FoxP1) is upregulated in skeletal muscle of cachectic mice and people with cancer, and when overexpressed in skeletal muscle is sufficient to induce pathological features characteristic of cachexia. However, the role of myofiber-derived FoxP1 in both normal muscle physiology and cancer-induced muscle wasting remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, we generated a conditional mouse line with myofiber-specific ablation of FoxP1 (FoxP1SkmKO) and found that in cancer-free mice, deletion of FoxP1 in skeletal myofibers resulted in increased myofiber size in both males and females, with a significant increase in muscle mass in males. In response to murine KPC pancreatic tumor burden, we found that myofiber-derived FoxP1 is required for cancer-induced muscle wasting and diaphragm muscle weakness in male mice. In summary, our findings identify myofiber-specific FoxP1 as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle with sex-specific differences in the context of cancer. NEW & NOTEWORTHYHere we identify myofiber-derived FoxP1 as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle with sex-specific effects in cancer. Under cancer-free conditions, FoxP1 knockout increased myofiber size in male and female mice. However, in response to pancreatic cancer, FoxP1 was required for muscle wasting and weakness in males but not females. This highlights the need to consider sexual dimorphism in cancer-induced muscle pathologies and provides evidence suggesting that targeting FoxP1 could help mitigate these effects in males.