[Cell therapy prospects in Duchenne muscular dystrophy]

Skeletal muscle is made of multinucleated postmitotic fibers which are the agents of contraction. These fibers arise from mononuclear precursor cells which fuse after having migrated from the somites to the site of myogenesis. The cascade of events which result in muscle differentiation is well known nowadays (Sabourin & Rudnicki, 2000). Some precursor cells present in adults muscle are termed satellite cells (Mauro, 1961), because of their location between the plasma membrane and the extracellular matrix of muscle fibers. Since they have a role in muscle growth and regeneration, these cells were the first candidates for treating muscle dystrophies. Despite a large corpus of positive experimental data about transplantation of these cells, no hard clinical result has been obtained to date, However these investigations have led to fruitful thinking about heterogeneity of muscle cell precursors and the possible ways to use them for therapy.