Muscle stem cells.
Despite being mainly composed of highly differentiated contractile fibers, the adult skeletal muscle possesses the remarkable ability to regenerate, following injury. The cells that are responsible for this capacity are the satellite cells, a small population of adult stem cells positioned under the basal lamina of muscle fibers and that can give rise to both differentiated myogenic cells while maintaining a stem cell pool by a self-renewal mechanism. We will discuss here recent publications on the developmental origin of muscle stem cells, on the signaling pathways that affect their proliferation and differentiation, with reference to works on skeletal muscle formation in the embryo as well as the adult, using the mouse and chick as reference models.
Relaix
Frédéric
F
UMR-S 787, INSERM, UPMC-Paris VI, Institute of Myology, Faculty of Medecine Pitié-Salpétrière 105 bd de l'Hôpital, 75634, Paris Cedex 13, France.
Marcelle
Christophe
C
D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology; D054448:Precursor Cells, B-Lymphoid / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D032496:Satellite Cells, Skeletal Muscle / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism