Regulation and Function of Skeletal Muscle Stem Cells

摘要

Skeletal muscle satellite cells, which reside beneath the basal lamina of mature muscle fibers, function as myogenic precur-sors and are required for normal muscle growth and repair. Satellite cells share a common anatomical localization, yet theyexhibit substantial phenotypic and functional heterogeneity. Recent efforts in the field of adult myogenesis have been aimedat dissecting this heterogeneity and reveal the presence of discrete cell lineages within the muscle that function independentlyand interactively to maintain muscle homeostasis and to determine the outcome of muscle damage. Normal developmentalregulation of the frequency and function of these distinct tissue precursors, and pathological deregulation of their activity, mayhave an important role in age- and disease-dependent loss of muscle regenerative activity.