If researchers gave the satellite cells the signals to differentiate and form muscle fibers in culture, the group also found that they could use stripes of ephrins to get them to arrange themselves in parallel, the way muscle fibers always do in living beings, but have never been persuaded to do in a culture dish. This leads researchers to think that ephrins might actually be regulating several of the different steps that are needed to get from a population of stem cells spread out all over the muscle, to an organized and patterned new muscle fiber.
"We are really excited about the potential of these findings to explain a lot of things that were puzzling about the way satellite cells behave in healthy muscle, compared to a muscular dystrophy patient's own cells, or cells that have been injected therapeutically," Cornelison said. "If we're really lucky, we could find something that could make a difference in these kids' lives, and that's what we want the most."
When a muscle is damaged, dormant adult stem cells called satellite cells are signaled to wake up and contribute to repairing the muscle. University of Missouri researchers recently found how even distant satellite cells could help with the repair, and are now learning how the stem cells travel within the tissue. This knowledge could ultimately help doctors more effectively treat muscle disorders such as muscular dystrophy, in which the muscle is easily damaged and the patients satellite cells have lost the ability to repair.
(Photo Credit: MU News Bureau)
D Cornelison, an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science and a researcher in the Bond Life Sciences Center, says knowing how adult stem cells travel could help treatments for muscle disorders such as muscular dystrophy.
(Photo Credit: MU News Bureau)
Source: University of Missouri-Columbia