Satellite cells are well known as a postnatal skeletal muscle stem cell reservoir that under injury conditions participate in repair. However, mechanisms controlling satellite cell quiescence and activation are the topic of ongoing inquiry by many laboratories. In this study, we investigated whether loss of the cell cycle regulatory factor, pRb, is associated with the re-entry of quiescent satellite cells into replication and subsequent stem cell expansion. By ablation of Rb1 using a Pax7CreER,Rb1 conditional mouse line, satellite cell number was increased 5-fold over 6 months. Furthermore, myoblasts originating from satellite cells lacking Rb1 were also increased 3-fold over 6 months, while terminal differentiation was greatly diminished. Similarly, Pax7CreER,Rb1 mice exhibited muscle fiber hypotrophy in vivo under steady state conditions as well as a delay of muscle regeneration following cardiotoxin-mediated injury. These results suggest that cell cycle re-entry of quiescent satellite cells is accelerated by lack of Rb1, resulting in the expansion of both satellite cells and their progeny in adolescent muscle. Conversely, that sustained Rb1 loss in the satellite cell lineage causes a deficit of muscle fiber formation. However, we also show that pharmacological inhibition of protein phosphatase 1 activity, which will result in pRb inactivation accelerates satellite cell activation and/or expansion in a transient manner. Together, our results raise the possibility that reversible pRb inactivation in satellite cells and inhibition of protein phosphorylation may provide a new therapeutic tool for muscle atrophy by short term expansion of the muscle stem cells and myoblast pool.Skeletal muscle is a highly regenerative tissue because of the presence of muscle stem cells intertwined with individual muscle fibers. Muscle stem cells are also referred to as satellite cells because of their location of the cells under the basement membrane of muscle fibers (1). Satellite cells are maintained in quiescence in the adult steady state, while stimuli such as injury activate these myogenic (lineage-restricted) stem cells and induce differentiation into myoblasts then myofibers via the process of muscle regeneration (2, 3). Activated satellite cells divide symmetrically or asymmetrically to either replenish the reservoir of quiescent stem cells and/or to create myogenic cell progeny destined for differentiation (4,5,6). Although the regulatory mechanisms modulating the satellite cell quiescence/ activation cycle are not yet well understood, it is widely known that the HGF/c-Met signaling axis is one such mechanism regulating the cell cycle re-entry of quiescent satellite cells (3, 7). A related recent study suggested that high concentration of HGF inhibits satellite cell activation by the negative feedback mechanism through enhanced satellite cell expression of Myostatin (GDF8) (8), a potent regulator of quiescence/activation (10). In more broad-reaching studies, Fukada et al. (2007) recently performed a gene expression analys...