Aging of skeletal muscle does not affect the response of satellite cells to denervation

Satellite cells (SCs) are the main source of new fibers in regenerating skeletal muscles and the key contributor to extra nuclei in growing fibers during postnatal development. Aging results in depletion of the SC population and in the reduction of its proliferative activity. Although it has been previously determined that under conditions of massive fiber death in vivo the regenerative potential of SCs is not impaired in old muscle, no studies have yet tested whether advanced age is a factor that may restrain the response of SCs to muscle denervation. The present study is designed to answer this question, comparing the changes of SC numbers in tibialis anterior (TA) muscles from young (4 months) and old (24 months) WI/HicksCar rats after 2 months of denervation. Immunostaining with antibodies against M-cadherin and NCAM was used to detect and count the SCs. The results demonstrate that the percentages of both M-cadherin- and NCAM-positive SCs (SC/Fibers x 100) in control TA muscles from young rats (5.6 +/- 0.5% and 1.4 +/- 0.2%, respectively) are larger than those in old rats (2.3 +/- 0.3% and 0.5 +/- 0.1%, respectively). At the same time, in 2-month denervated TA muscles the percentages of M-cadherin and NCAM positive SC are increased and reach a level that is comparable between young (16.2 +/- 0.9% and 7.5 +/- 0.5%, respectively) and old (15.9 +/- 0.7% and 10.1 +/- 0.5%, respectively) rats. Based on these data, we suggest that aging does not repress the capacity of SC to become activated and grow in the response to muscle denervation.