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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
09:30
Assessing Functional Metrics of Skeletal Muscle Health in Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissues
Published on: February 18, 2021
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Spatial multi-omics in whole skeletal muscle reveals complex tissue architecture
Clara Martínez Mir1,2, Paola Pisterzi1,2, Isabel De Poorter1,2
1Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2333, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Communications Biology
|October 5, 2024
Summary
This study reveals unexpected regional organization in mouse muscle, mapping gene expression and metabolism across the entire tissue. These findings provide a comprehensive view of myofiber heterogeneity and reconcile previous research.
Area of Science:
- Muscle biology
- Spatial omics
- Molecular organization
Background:
- Myofibers, large multinucleated cells, were thought to have simple organization.
- Previous studies using local sampling revealed myonuclei transcription profiles but obscured spatial organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To elucidate the full tissue architecture of the murine tibialis anterior muscle.
- To map the spatial transcriptomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic organization of the whole muscle.
Main Methods:
- Combined RNA tomography and mass spectrometry imaging for whole-tissue spatial omics.
- Validated findings with multiplexed immunofluorescence staining.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated strong regionalization of gene expression and metabolic differences along the proximal-distal axis.
- Revealed variable myofiber type proportions across the muscle.
- Mapped the complete spatial transcriptomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic landscape.
Conclusions:
- Whole-tissue spatial omics provides a comprehensive understanding of muscle organization.
- Reconciled conflicting results from previous local sampling studies.
- Highlighted significant regional heterogeneity in muscle gene expression and metabolism.
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