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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Identification of Skeletal Muscle Satellite Cells by Immunofluorescence with Pax7 and Laminin Antibodies
Published on: April 19, 2018
Visualization of PAX7 protein dynamics in muscle satellite cells in a YFP knock-in-mouse line
Yasuo Kitajima1,2, Yusuke Ono3,4
1Musculoskeletal Molecular Biology Research Group, Basic and Translational Research Center for Hard Tissue Disease, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8588, Japan.
Background:
Satellite cells are residential muscle stem cells that express a paired box protein, PAX7.
Results:
Here, we report a knock-in mouse line expressing a PAX7-enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fusion protein that enables visualization of PAX7 protein dynamics in living satellite cells through YFP fluorescence. The YFP fluorescence signals in Pax7-YFP knock-in mice clearly recapitulated the endogenous expression of PAX7 protein in satellite cells. YFP+ satellite cells were efficiently isolated from muscle tissues by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Homozygous Pax7-YFP knock-in mice (Pax7YFP/YFP) were viable, grew and regenerated muscle normally, and Pax7YFP/YFP mouse-derived satellite cells proliferated, differentiated, and self-renewed as efficiently as those from wild-type (Pax7+/+) mice.
Conclusions:
Taken together, our Pax7-YFP mouse line is a useful tool to aid the development of stem-cell-based therapies for muscle diseases.
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