Human and mouse skeletal muscle stem and progenitor cells in health and disease

The proper functioning of tissues and organs depends on their ability to self-renew and repair. Some of the tissues, like epithelia, renew almost constantly while in the others this process is induced by injury or diseases. The stem or progenitor cells responsible for tissue homeostasis have been identified in many organs. Some of them, such as hematopoietic or intestinal epithelium stem cells, are multipotent and can differentiate into various cell types. Others are unipotent. The skeletal muscle tissue does not self-renew spontaneously, however, it presents unique ability to regenerate in response to the injury or disease. Its repair almost exclusively relies on unipotent satellite cells. However, multiple lines of evidence document that some progenitor cells present in the muscle can be supportive for skeletal muscle regeneration. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the complicated landscape of stem and progenitor cells that exist in skeletal muscle and support its regeneration. We compare the cells from two model organisms, i.e., mouse and human, documenting their similarities and differences and indicating methods to test their ability to undergo myogenic differentiation.