Identification and Analysis of Myogenic Progenitors In Vivo During Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury by High-Dimensional...

Area of Science:

• Cell Biology
• Regenerative Medicine
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Skeletal muscle regeneration relies on adult muscle stem cells and their progeny.
• Muscle stem cells activate, proliferate, and differentiate upon injury, with some self-renewing.
• Recent advances in single-cell technologies have enabled the identification of myogenic progenitors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a single-cell mass cytometry (CyTOF) method for analyzing stem and progenitor cells during acute muscle injury.
• To resolve the cellular and molecular dynamics of muscle regeneration.
• To enable prospective isolation of muscle stem and progenitor cells for functional studies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized single-cell mass cytometry (cytometry by time of flight [CyTOF]) to analyze stem and progenitor cells in acute muscle injury.
• Simultaneously detected novel cell surface markers and key myogenic transcription factors.
• Developed a sorting strategy using CD9 and CD104 cell surface markers for prospective isolation via fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS).

Main Results:

• Identified activated stem cells and progenitor cell populations representing landmarks of myogenesis.
• Demonstrated a method for the simultaneous detection of cell surface markers and myogenic transcription factors.
• Established a FACS-based sorting strategy for isolating muscle stem and progenitor cells.

Conclusions:

• Muscle progenitor cells are crucial for understanding stem cell fate control and developing therapeutic strategies for muscle diseases.
• The presented CyTOF method advances the study of muscle stem and progenitor cell dynamics in vivo.
• This approach can accelerate the development of cell therapies and improve understanding of muscle stem cell diseases.