title: Satellite cell characterization from aging human muscle.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Satellite cells (SCs) are skeletal muscle progenitor cells located between the basal lamina and the sarcolemma of muscle fibers. They are responsible for muscle growth and repair. In humans, aging results in the depletion of the SC population and in its proliferative activity, but not in its function. It has not yet been determined whether under conditions of massive muscle fiber death in vivo, the regenerative potential of SCs is totally or partially compromised in old muscle. No studies have yet tested whether advanced age is a factor that restrains the response of SCs to muscle denervation in humans; this is also due to difficulties in the isolation and in the culture of SCs from a small human surgery fragment. The aim of this study was to study in depth muscle regeneration analysing the SC ability of SCs to proliferate and differentiate in aging human patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  In order to study in more detail the molecular mechanism, the proliferative and differentiative ability of aging SCs, we isolated SCs from aging human muscle biopsies and analysed their morphology by transmission electron microscopy and immunocytochemical analysis (antibodies against desmin, N-CAM and M-cadherin) and their capacity to grow and to expand in vitro. Moreover, in order to evaluate gene expression of myogenic regulatory factors Myf5, MyoD and myogenin (Myf4), RT-PCR was performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SCs isolated from aging human muscle biopsies and plated into favorable proliferation and differentiation conditions were able to proceed through the myogenic program and actively form myotubes, although taking longer than the young control sample. The RT-PCR analysis together with the ultrastructural SC features showed that the myogenic potential seemed to be compromised during the aging human muscle proliferation in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Radiological and Histopathological Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corbu
authors.forename: Annarita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scaramozza
authors.forename: Lucilla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Badiali-DeGiorgi
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tarantino
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Papa
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: D'Alessandro
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zavatta
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laus
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lattanzi
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cenacchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003893:Desmin / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D019006:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D032496:Satellite Cells, Skeletal Muscle / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D003893:Desmin; D019006:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules; C070896:M-cadherin