Isolation and Characterization of Muscle-Derived Stem Cells from Dystrophic Mouse Models

The study of the population of muscle satellite cells (SC) is important to understand muscle regeneration and its involvement in the different dystrophic processes. We studied two dystrophic mouse models, Large^myd and Lama2^dy2j/J, that show an intense and very similar pattern of muscle degeneration, but with differences in the expression of genes involved in the regeneration cascade. They are, therefore, interesting models to study possible differences in the mechanism of activation and action of satellite cells in the dystrophic muscle. The main objectives of this chapter are to describe the isolation and characterization of SC populations, evaluating the presence of myogenic and pluripotent stem cells markers in normal and dystrophic muscles.