Repairing skeletal muscle: regenerative potential of skeletal muscle stem cells

Abstract

Skeletal muscle damaged by injury or by degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophy is able to regenerate new muscle fibers. Regeneration mainly depends upon satellite cells, myogenic progenitors localized between the basal lamina and the muscle fiber membrane. However, other cell types outside the basal lamina, such as pericytes, also have myogenic potency. Here, we discuss the main properties of satellite cells and other myogenic progenitors as well as recent efforts to obtain myogenic cells from pluripotent stem cells for patient-tailored cell therapy. Clinical trials utilizing these cells to treat muscular dystrophies, heart failure, and stress urinary incontinence are also briefly outlined.

Pericytes resident in postnatal skeletal muscle differentiate into muscle fibres and generate satellite cells

“…Nevertheless, in the last ten years, evidence has accumulated that other progenitors can contribute to skeletal muscle regeneration either by direct fusion or by entering the satellite cell pool [6][7][8][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] . When identified, the anatomical niche of these cells has been often associated with blood vessels (endothelial cells, pericytes and also haematopoietic cells).…”

Transplanted Mesoangioblasts Require Macrophage IL-10 for Survival in a Mouse Model of Muscle Injury

“…In response to muscle injuries, quiescent satellite cells undergo activation, proliferate, and fuse with each other or with damaged fibers (26). Other sources of myogenic precursors, mostly of mesodermic origin, have been identified (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) including mesoangioblasts from the embryonic dorsal aorta and their counterparts associated with microvascular walls in the adult skeletal muscle, pericytes (37), and have been shown to contribute to muscle regeneration (36,(38)(39)(40)(41)(42). Upon transplantation in regenerating injured skeletal muscle, mesoangioblasts participate in tissue growth and regeneration and fuse with resident satellite cells (43).…”

PI3K/AKT signaling determines a dynamic switch between distinct KSRP functions favoring skeletal myogenesis

“…1 Once differentiated, adult muscles retain the capacity to regenerate in response to exercise or injury by activation and proliferation of satellite cells. 2,3 Skeletal myogenesis is orchestrated by distinct regulatory signaling pathways, including phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/ AKT, that ultimately change tissue-specific gene expression programs during muscle cell differentiation and tissue reconstruction after trauma. 4 In the recent few years, extensive analysis of the composition of the transcriptome assembled on the chromatin of myogenic loci has been performed (reviewed in Guasconi and Puri 5 ), although knowledge on the mechanisms that post-transcriptionally regulate muscle differentiation and regeneration is more limited.…”