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09/17/2012 10:59

At the Right Place at the Right Time - New Insights into Muscle Stem Cells

Barbara Bachtler Pressestelle
Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC) Berlin-Buch

    Muscles have a pool of stem cells which provides a source for muscle growth and for regeneration of injured muscles. The stem cells must reside in special niches of the muscle for efficient growth and repair. The developmental biologists Dr. Dominique Bröhl and Prof. Carmen Birchmeier of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have elucidated how these stem cells colonize these niches. At the same time, they show that the stem cells weaken when, due to a mutation, they locate outside of the muscle fibers instead of in their stem cell niches (Developmental Cell, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2012.07.014)*.

    Muscle stem cells, also called satellite cells, colonize a niche that is located between the plasma membrane of the muscle cell and the surrounding basal lamina. Already in newborns these niches contain satellite cells from which both muscle cells and new stem cells can be generated.

    Weakened stem cells
    In the present study Dr. Bröhl and Professor Birchmeier showed that mouse muscle progenitor cells lacking components of the Notch signaling pathway cannot colonize their niche. Instead the muscle progenitor cells locate in tissue between the muscle fibers. The developmental biologists view this as the cause for the weakening of the muscles. The stem cells that are “in the wrong place” are no longer as potent as they originally were and hardly contribute to muscle growth.

    In addition, the Notch signaling pathway has a second function in muscle development. It prevents the differentiation of stem cells into muscle cells through suppression of the muscle developmental factor MyoD and thus ensures that there will always be a pool of stem cells for muscle repair and regeneration. In the future this work could gain in importance for research on muscle regeneration and muscle weakness.

    *Colonization of the Satellite Cell Niche by Skeletal Muscle Progenitor Cells Depends on Notch Signals
    Dominique Bröhl1, Elena Vasyutina1,#, Maciej T. Czajkowski1, Joscha Griger1, Claudia Rassek1, Hans-Peter Rahn2, Bettina Purfürst3, Hagen Wende1 and Carmen Birchmeier1*
    1Developmental Biology/Signal Transduction Group, 2Preparative Flow Cytometry and 3Electron Microscopy Core Facility
    Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin, Germany

    Contact:
    Barbara Bachtler
    Press Department
    Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
    in the Helmholtz Association
    Robert-Rössle-Straße 10; 13125 Berlin, Germany
    Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96; Fax: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 33
    e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
    http://www.mdc-berlin.de/


    Images

    In healthy mice a stem cell (red) resides in a special niche between the muscle cell and the basal lamina (green) (left) which surrounds it. If the Notch signaling pathway is mutated, the stem cell locates outside of the muscle fiber (right) and hardly contributes to muscle growth.
    In healthy mice a stem cell (red) resides in a special niche between the muscle cell and the basal l ...
    (Photo: Dominique Bröhl/ Copyright: MDC)
    None


    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars
    Biology, Medicine
    transregional, national
    Research results, Scientific Publications
    English


     

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