{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T05:07:57Z","timestamp":1778821677550,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778544000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Australian Government Research Scholarship and Seed Grant from the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science.","award":["Australian Government Research Scholarship and Seed Grant from the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Australian Government Research Scholarship and Seed Grant from the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science."]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Muscles"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Muscle wasting contributes substantially to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-related disability, but its association with colitis severity across disease stages remains poorly characterized. We therefore assessed skeletal muscle mass, fiber morphology, and voluntary wheel-running performance in Winnie mice\u2014a spontaneous Muc2 mutant model of chronic colitis\u2014in separate female and male homozygous mutant and WT littermate cohorts. Assessments were performed at 5 weeks, before overt colitis, and at 15 weeks, in a cohort with more pronounced colitis. Outcomes included disease activity index (DAI), fecal lipocalin-2 (LCN-2), wheel-running metrics, soleus and tibialis anterior mass, and minimal Feret\u2019s diameter distributions. At 5 weeks, Winnie mice showed no overt disease activity and no consistent structural muscle deficit. In contrast, the 15-week cohort exhibited marked colitis in both sexes, with increased DAI and LCN-2, reduced voluntary wheel-running performance, lower soleus and tibialis anterior mass, and smaller muscle fiber diameters with left-shifted size distributions. Correlation analyses identified associations between fecal LCN-2, skeletal muscle mass and size, and wheel-running distance and velocity, supporting a link between intestinal inflammation and muscle impairment in this model. These cross-sectional data are consistent with reduced voluntary activity and structural myopathy during progression of spontaneous colitis. The Winnie mouse model therefore provides a clinically relevant preclinical platform to study IBD-associated muscle wasting and its association with intestinal inflammation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/muscles5020038","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T16:04:36Z","timestamp":1778601876000},"page":"38","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Progressive Myopenia and Functional Decline in the Winnie Mouse Model of Chronic Colitis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7292-1242","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shilpa","family":"Sharma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine\u2014Western Health, Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3021, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Danielle","family":"Debruin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine\u2014Western Health, Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3021, Australia"},{"name":"Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3214-2938","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jeannie","family":"Devereaux","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1398-3694","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alan","family":"Hayes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine\u2014Western Health, Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3021, Australia"},{"name":"Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2597-6929","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kulmira","family":"Nurgali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine\u2014Western Health, Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3021, Australia"},{"name":"Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC 3011, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8126-0637","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gustavo","family":"Duque","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine\u2014Western Health, Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3021, Australia"},{"name":"Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"720","DOI":"10.1038\/nrgastro.2015.150","article-title":"The global burden of IBD: From 2015 to 2025","volume":"12","author":"Kaplan","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nat. 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