Vital marker for muscle nuclei in myoblast transfer

A new method is developed using Fluoro-Gold (FG) as a vital stain to label the nuclei of donor myoblasts in myoblast transfer studies. In vitro incubation with 0.01% FG for 16 h resulted in 100% nuclei labelling. Intensive fluorescence persisted following 9 days of subculture, when the human myoblasts were injected into the quadriceps of mouse recipients immunosuppressed with cyclosporine. Injected muscles showed mosaicism of host and donor nuclei 25 days after injection, indicating (i) survival and fusion among donor myoblasts, and (ii) fusion between host and donor cells. FG labelling was not observed in control muscles injected with an equal volume of FG-labelled dead myoblasts, 0.01% FG medium, or phosphate-buffered saline.