In muscle stem cells, age matters: study

June 25, 2009

Thu Jun 25, 8:20 AM

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new understanding of the genes that make muscle cells may

change the way researchers think about stem cell transplants for muscular

dystrophy and muscle injuries, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

In a surprise finding, they said genes important for forming muscle cells in

embryos and newborns are not normally active in adult stem cells.

And researchers hoping to use muscle stem cells in stem-cell transplant

therapies should not assume genes that control early muscle development serve

the same purpose in repairing adult muscle, Christoph Lepper and colleagues at

the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore reported in the journal Nature.

Earlier studies have shown that two genes -- Pax3 and Pax7 -- control cells that

give rise muscle in embryos, and Pax7 also helps build muscle in newborn mice.

To get a better understanding of their function, Lepper and colleagues studied

these genes at various stages of development in live mice.

" I thought that if they are so important in the embryo, they must be important

for adult muscle stem cells, " Lepper said in a statement.

The team used genetic engineering to suppress both the Pax3 and Pax7 genes in

adult muscle stem cells, and they found that adult stem cells were still able to

function normally.

" I was totally surprised to find that the muscle stem cells are normal without

them, " Lepper said.

The researchers then looked at whether the same was true in injured muscles,

when muscle stem cells go to work making new muscle tissue.

To study this, they injured mouse leg muscles between the knee and ankle, and

found the muscle stem cells were able to make new muscle, even without the two

key embryonic muscle stem cell genes.

The team said the embryonic muscle cell genes appear to only be active in mice

within the first three weeks after birth. After that, they believe the genes go

quiet and allow a different set of genes to take over.

Finding those genes will be important as scientists pursue new treatments for

diseases like muscular dystrophy, a genetic, degenerative disease that affects

voluntary muscles, they said.

And they said teams should look at other types of stem cells to see how age

might affect their properties, and they should take age of stem cells into

account in transplant-based treatments.

(Reporting by Steenhuysen, editing by Jackie )

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