muscle stem cells

Study could pave the way in reducing decline in muscle strength as people age 

/ Esteban Cortez / Leave a comment

A study by Stanford Medicine researchers in older mice may lead to treatments that help seniors regain muscle strength lost to aging.

Muscle stem cells—which are activated in response to muscle injury to regenerate damaged muscle tissue—lose their potency with age. A study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that five percent of adults aged 60 and over had weak muscle strength, and thirteen percent had intermediate muscle strength. 

Now, researchers at Stanford Medicine are seeing that old mice regain the leg muscle strength of younger animals after receiving an antibody treatment that targets a pathway mediated by a molecule called CD47.  

The study was published in Cell Stem Cell and is co-funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).  

A Closer Look at CD47 

CD47 is a protein found on the surface of many cells in the body. Billed as the “don’t eat me” molecule, it is better known as a target for cancer immunotherapy. It’s common on the surface of many cancer cells and protects them from immune cells that patrol the body looking for dysfunctional or abnormal cells.  

Stanford researchers are finding that old muscle stem cells may use a similar approach to avoid being targeted by the immune system. 

It’s been difficult to determine why muscle stem cells lose their ability to divide rapidly in response to injury or exercise as they age. Dr. Ermelinda Porpiglia, the lead author of the study, used a technique called “single-cell mass cytometry” to study mouse muscle stem cells.  

Using the technique, Porpiglia focused on CD47, and found that the molecule was found at high levels on the surface of some muscle stem cells in older mice, but at lower levels in younger animals. Porpiglia also found that high levels of CD47 on the surface of muscle stem cells correlate with a decrease in their function.   

“This finding was unexpected because we primarily think of CD47 as an immune regulator,” Porpiglia said. “But it makes sense that, much like cancer cells, aged stem cells might be using CD47 to escape the immune system.” 

Testing an Antibody 

Further investigation revealed that a molecule called thrombospondin, which binds to CD47 on the surface of the muscle stem cells, suppresses the muscle stem cells’ activity.  

Porpiglia showed that an antibody that recognizes thrombospondin and blocks its ability to bind to CD47 dramatically affected the function of muscle stem cells. Cells from older animals divided more robustly when growing in a laboratory dish in the presence of the antibody, and when the antibody was injected into the leg muscles of old mice the animals developed bigger and stronger leg muscles than control animals.  

When given prior to injury, the antibody helped the aged animals recover in ways similar to younger mice. 

Porpiglia said, “We are hopeful that it might one day be possible to inject an antibody to thrombospondin at specific sites in the body to regenerate muscle in older people or to counteract functional problems due to disease or surgery.” 

These results are significant because they could one day make it possible to boost muscle recovery in humans after surgery and reduce the decline in muscle strength as people age, but researchers say more work is needed.  

“Rejuvenating the muscle stem cell population in older mice led to a significant increase in strength,” said Dr. Helen Blau, a senior author of the study. “This is a localized treatment that could be useful in many clinical settings, although more work needs to be done to determine whether this approach will be safe and effective in humans.” 

CIRM has previously funded work with researchers using CD47 that led to clinical trials targeting cancer. You can read about that work here and here. That work led to the creation of a company, Forty Seven Inc, which was eventually bought by Gilead for $4.9 billion.  

Read the original release by Krista Conger on the Stanford Medicine website. 

Repairing damaged muscles

/ Kevin McCormack / 3 Comments
Close-up of the arm of a 70-year-old male patient with a torn biceps muscle as a result of a bowling injury; Photo courtesy Science Photo Library

In the time of coronavirus an awful lot of people are not just working from home they’re also working out at home. That’s a good thing; exercise is a great way to boost the immune system, stay healthy and deal with stress. But for people used to more structured workouts at the gym it can come with a downside. Trying new routines at home that look easy on YouTube, but are harder in practice could potentially increase the risk of injury.

A new study from Japan looks at what happens when you damage a muscle. It won’t help it heal faster, but it will at least let you understand what is happening inside your body as you sit there with ice on your arm and ibuprofen in your hand.

The researchers found that when you damage a muscle, for example by trying to lift too much weight or doing too many repetitions of one exercise, the damaged muscle fibers leak substances that activate nearby “satellite” stem cells. These satellite cells then flock to the site of the injury and help repair the muscle.

The team, from Kumamoto University and Nagasaki University in Japan, named the leaking substances “Damaged myofiber-derived factors” (DMDFs) – personally I think “Substances Leaked by Injured Muscles (SLIM) would be a much cooler acronym, but that’s just me. Gaining a deeper understanding of how DMDFs work might help lead to therapies for older people who have fewer satellite muscle cells, and also for conditions like muscular dystrophy and age-related muscular fragility (sarcopenia), where the number and function of satellite cells decreases.

In an article in Science Daily, Professor Yusuke Ono, the leader of the study, says it’s possible that DMDFs play an even greater role in the body:

“In this study, we proposed a new muscle injury-regeneration model. However, the detailed molecular mechanism of how DMDFs activate satellite cells remains an unclear issue for future research. In addition to satellite cell activation, DMDF moonlighting functions are expected to be diverse. Recent studies have shown that skeletal muscle secretes various factors that affect other organs and tissues, such as the brain and fat, into the bloodstream, so it may be possible that DMDFs are involved in the linkage between injured muscle and other organs via blood circulation. We believe that further elucidation of the functions of DMDFs could clarify the pathologies of some muscle diseases and help in the development of new drugs.”

The study appears in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Stem Cell Agency Board Approves Three More Projects Targeting COVID-19

/ Yimy Villa / Leave a comment
Dr. Jianhua Yu (left), Dr. Helen Blau (center), and Dr. Albert Wong (right)

The COVID-19 virus targets many different parts of the body, often with deadly or life-threatening consequences. This past Friday the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved investments in three early-stage research programs taking different approaches to battling the virus.

Dr. Jianhua Yu at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope was awarded $150,000 to use stem cells from umbilical cord blood to attack the virus. Dr. Yu and his team have many years of experience in taking cord blood cells and turning them into what are called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cells. The goal is to deploy these CAR NK cells to specifically target cells infected with COVID-19. This leverages the body of work at the City of Hope to develop this technology for cancer.

Dr. Helen Blau of Stanford University was awarded $149,996 to target recovery of muscle stem cells of the diaphragm in COVID-19 patients who have an extended period on a ventilator.

Patients with severe coronavirus often suffer respiratory failure and end up on mechanical ventilation that takes over the work of breathing. Over time, the diaphragm, the main muscle responsible for inhaling and exhaling, weakens and atrophies. There is no treatment for this kind of localized muscle wasting and it is anticipated that some of these patients will take months, if not years, to fully recover. Dr. Blau’s team proposes to develop a therapy with Prostaglandin E2 and Bupivacaine based on data generated by Dr. Blau’s group that these drugs, already approved by the FDA for other indications, have the potential to stimulate muscle stem cell recovery.

Dr. Albert Wong, also from Stanford University, was awarded $149,999 to develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

Most vaccine candidates are focused on getting the body to produce an antibody response to block the virus. However, Dr. Wong thinks that to be truly effective, a vaccine also needs to produce a CD8+ T cell response to augment an effective immune response to remove the COVID-19 infected cells that are hijacked by the virus to spread and cause illness.  This team will use the experience it gained using CIRM funds to vaccine against glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, to advance a similar approach to produce an effective cellular immune response to combat COVID-19.  

“CIRM is committed to supporting novel, multi-pronged approaches to battle this COVID-19 crisis that leverage solid science and knowledge gained in other areas.” says Dr. Maria T. Millan, the President & CEO of CIRM. “These three projects highlight three very different approaches to combatting the acute devastating health manifestations of COVID-19 as well as the debilitating sequelae that impact the ability to recover from the acute illness. Through this COVID funding opportunity, CIRM is enabling researchers to re-direct work they have already done, often with CIRM support, to quickly develop new approaches to COVID-19.”

Promising results from CIRM-funded projects

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

Severe Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-1 (LAD-1) is a rare condition that causes the immune system to malfunction and reduces its ability to fight off viruses and bacteria. Over time the repeated infections can take a heavy toll on the body and dramatically shorten a person’s life. But now a therapy, developed by Rocket Pharmaceuticals, is showing promise in helping people with this disorder.

The therapy, called RP-L201, targets white blood cells called neutrophils which ordinarily attack and destroy invading particles. In people with LAD-1 their neutrophils are dangerously low. That’s why the new data about this treatment is so encouraging.

In a news release, Jonathan Schwartz, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Rocket, says early results in the CIRM-funded clinical trial, show great promise:

“Patients with severe LAD-I have neutrophil CD18 expression of less than 2% of normal, with extremely high mortality in early childhood. In this first patient, an increase to 47% CD18 expression sustained over six months demonstrates that RP-L201 has the potential to correct the neutrophil deficiency that is the hallmark of LAD-I. We are also pleased with the continued visible improvement of multiple disease-related skin lesions. The second patient has recently been treated, and we look forward to completing the Phase 1 portion of the registrational trial for this program.”

The results were released at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

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These microscopic images show gene expression in muscle stem and progenitor cells as they mature from early development to adulthood (left to right). As part of this process, the cells switch from actively expressing one key gene (green) to another (violet); this is accompanied by the growth of muscle fibers (red).
Photo courtesy: Cell Stem Cell/UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center

When you are going on a road-trip you need a map to help you find your way. It’s the same with stem cell research. If you are going to develop a new way to treat devastating muscle diseases, you need to have a map to show you how to build new muscle stem cells. And that’s what researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA – with help from CIRM funding – have done.

The team took muscle progenitor cells – which show what’s happening in development before a baby is born – and compared them to muscle stem cells – which control muscle development after a baby is born. That enabled them to identify which genes are active at what stage of development.

In a news release, April Pyle, senior author of the paper, says this could open the door to new therapies for a variety of conditions:

“Muscle loss due to aging or disease is often the result of dysfunctional muscle stem cells. This map identifies the precise gene networks present in muscle progenitor and stem cells across development, which is essential to developing methods to generate these cells in a dish to treat muscle disorders.”

The study is published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

From organs to muscle tissue: how stem cells are being used in 3D

/ Yimy Villa / Leave a comment
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat

When most people think of stem cells, they might conjure up an image of small dots under a microscope. It is hard to imagine these small specs being applied to three-dimensional structures. But like a pointillism painting, such as A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat, stem cells can be used to help build things never thought possible. Two studies demonstrate this concept in very different ways.

MIT engineers have designed coiled “nanoyarn,” shown as an artist’s interpretation here. The twisted fibers are lined with living cells and may be used to repair injured muscles and tendons while maintaining their flexibility. Image by Felice Frankel

A study at MIT used nanofiber coated with muscle stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells in an effort to provide a flexible range of motion for these stem cells. Hundreds of thousands of nanofibers were twisted, resembling yarn and rope, in order to mimic the pattern found in tendons and muscle tissue throughout the body. The researchers at MIT found that the yarn like structure of the nanofibers keep the stem cells alive and growing, even as the team stretched and bent the fibers multiple times.

Normally, when a person injures these types of tissues, particularly around a major joint such as the shoulder or knee, it require surgery and weeks of limited mobility to heal properly. The MIT team hopes that their technology could be applied toward treating the site of injury while maintaining range of motion as the newly applied stem cells continue to grow to replace the injured tissue.

In an article, Dr. Ming Guo, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and one of the authors of the study, was quoted as saying,

“When you repair muscle or tendon, you really have to fix their movement for a period of time, by wearing a boot, for example. With this nanofiber yarn, the hope is, you won’t have to wearing anything like that.”

Their complete findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers in Germany have created transparent human organs using a new technology that could pave the way to print three-dimensional body parts such as kidneys for transplants. Above, Dr. Ali Ertuerk inspects a transparent human brain.
Photo courtesy of Reuters.

In a separate study, researchers in Germany have successfully created transparent human organs, paving the way to print three-dimensional body parts. Dr. Ali Erturk at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, with a team of scientists, developed a technique to create a detailed blueprint of organs, including blood vessels and every single cell in its specific location. These directions were then used to print a scaffold of the organ. With the help of a 3D printer, stem cells, acting like ink in a printer, were injected into the correct positions to make the organ functional.

Previously, 3D-printed organs lacked detailed cellular structures because they were based on crude images from computer tomography or MRI machines. This technology has now changed that.

In an article, Dr. Erturk is quoted as saying,

“We can see where every single cell is located in transparent human organs. And then we can actually replicate exactly the same, using 3D bioprinting technology to make a real functional organ. Therefore, I believe we are much closer to a real human organ for the first time now.”

Muscle stem cells provide insight into treatment of muscular dystrophies and aging muscles

/ Yimy Villa / 3 Comments
Dr. Alessandra Sacco, associate professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Muscles are a vital part of the body that enable us to walk, run, lift, and do everyday activities. When muscles start to deteriorate, we start to have difficulty performing these activities, which severely limits quality of life and autonomy. Typically, this becomes more commonplace as we age and is known as sarcopenia, which affects nearly ten percent of adults over the age of 50 and nearly half of individuals in their 80s.

However, there are other instances where this happens much more rapidly and early on due to genetic disease. These are commonly known as muscular dystrophies, which consist of more than 30 genetic diseases characterized by progressive muscle weakness and degeneration. A cure does not currently exist.

Regardless of the cause of the muscle deterioration, scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have uncovered how to potentially promote growth inside stem cells found within the muscle, thereby promoting muscle growth. In a mouse model study funded in part by CIRM and published in Nature Communications, Dr. Alessandra Sacco, senior author of the paper, and her team describe how a signaling pathway, along with a specific protein, can help regulate what muscle stem cells do.

Muscle stem cells can do two things, they either become adult muscle cells or self-renew to replenish the stem cell population. The paper discusses how the signaling pathway and specific protein are crucial for muscle stem cell differentiation and muscle growth, both of which are needed to prevent deterioration. Their aim is to use this knowledge to develop therapeutic targets that can aid with muscle growth.

Dr. Alessandra Sacco is quoted in an article as saying,

“Muscle stem cells can ‘burn out’ trying to regenerate tissue during the natural aging process or due to chronic muscle disease. We believe we have found promising drug targets that direct muscle stem cells to ‘make the right decision’ and stimulate muscle repair, potentially helping muscle tissue regeneration and maintaining tissue function in chronic conditions such as muscular dystrophy and aging.”

An unexpected link: immune cells send muscle injury signal to activate stem cell regeneration

/ Todd Dubnicoff / Leave a comment

We’ve written many blogs over the years about research focused on muscle stem cell function . Those stories describe how satellite cells, another name for muscle stem cells, lay dormant but jump into action to grow new muscle cells in response to injury and damage. And when satellite function breaks down with aging as well as with diseases like muscular dystrophy, the satellite cells drop in number and/or lose their capacity to divide, leading to muscle degeneration.

Illustration of satellite cells within muscle fibers. Image source: APSU Biology

One thing those research studies don’t focus on is the cellular and molecular signals that cause the satellite cells to say, “Hey! We need to start dividing and regenerating!” A Stanford research team examining this aspect of satellite cell function reports this week in Nature Communications that immune cells play an unexpected role in satellite cell activation. This study, funded in part by CIRM, provides a fundamental understanding of muscle regeneration and repair that could aid the development of novel treatments for muscle disorders.

ADAMTS1: a muscle injury signal?
To reach this conclusion, the research team drew upon previous studies that indicated a gene called Adamts1 was turned on more strongly in the activated satellite cells compared to the dormant satellite cells. The ADAMTS1 protein is a secreted protein so the researchers figured it’s possible it could act as a muscle injury signal that activates satellites cells. When ADAMTS1 was applied to mouse muscle fibers in a petri dish, satellite cells were indeed activated.

Next, the team examined ADAMTS1 in a mouse model of muscle injury and found the protein clearly increased within one day after muscle injury. This timing corresponds to when satellite cells drop out of there dormant state after muscle injury and begin dividing and specializing into new muscle cells. But follow up tests showed the satellite cells were not the source of ADAMTS1. Instead, a white blood cell called a macrophage appeared to be responsible for producing the protein at the site of injury. Macrophages, which literally means “big eaters”, patrol our organs and will travel to sites of injury and infection to keep them clean and healthy by gobbling up dead cells, bacteria and viruses. They also secrete various proteins to alert the rest of the immune system to join the fight against infection.

Immune cell’s double duty after muscle injury: cleaning up the mess and signaling muscle regeneration
To confirm the macrophages’ additional role as the transmitter of this ADAMTS1 muscle injury signal, the researchers generated transgenic mice whose macrophages produce abnormally high levels of ADAMTS1. The activation of satellite cells in these mice was much higher than in normal mice lacking this boost of ADAMTS1 production. And four months after birth, the increased activation led to larger muscles in the transgenic mice. In terms of muscle regeneration, one-month old transgenic mice recovered from muscle injury faster than normal mice. Stanford professor Brian Feldman, MD, PhD, the senior author of the study, described his team’s initial reaction to their findings in an interview with Scope, Stanford Medicine’s blog:

“While, in retrospect, it might make intuitive sense that the same cells that are sent into a site of injury to clean up the mess also carry the tools and signals needed to rebuild what was destroyed, it was not at all obvious how, or if, these two processes were biologically coupled. Our data show a direct link in which the clean-up crew releases a signal to launch the rebuild. This was a surprise.”

Further experiments showed that ADAMTS1 works by chopping up a protein called NOTCH that lies on the surface of satellite cells. NOTCH provides signals to the satellite cell to stay in a dormant state. So, when ADAMTS1 degrades NOTCH, the dormancy state of the satellite cells is lifted and they begin to divide and transform into muscle cells.

A pathway to novel muscle disorder therapies?
One gotcha with the ADAMTS1 injury signal is that too much activation can lead to a depletion of satellite cells. In fact, after 8 months, muscle regeneration actually weakened in the transgenic mice that were designed to persistently produce the protein. Still, this novel role of macrophages in stimulating muscle regeneration via the secreted ADAMTS1 protein opens a door for the Stanford team to explore new therapeutic approaches to treating muscle disorders:

“We are excited to learn that a single purified protein, that functions outside the cell, is sufficient to signal to muscle stem cells and stimulate them to differentiate into muscle,” says Dr. Feldman. “The simplicity of that type of signal in general and the extracellular nature of the mechanism in particular, make the pathway highly tractable to manipulation to support efforts to develop therapies that improve health.”

Have scientists discovered a natural way to boost muscle regeneration?

/ Karen Ring / 4 Comments

Painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin are often a part of an athlete’s post-exercise regimen after intense workouts. Sore muscles, aches and stiffness can be more manageable by taking these drugs – collectively called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS – to reduce inflammation and pain. But research suggests that the anti-inflammatory effects of these painkillers might cause more harm than good by preventing muscle repair and regeneration after injury or exercise.

A new study out of Stanford Medicine supports these findings and proposes that a component of the inflammatory process is necessary to promote muscle regeneration. Their study was funded in part by a CIRM grant and was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Muscle stem cells are scattered throughout skeletal muscle tissue and remain inactive until they are stimulated to divide. When muscles are damaged or injured, an inflammatory response involving a cascade of immune cells, molecules and growth factors activates these stem cells, prompting them to regenerate muscle tissue.

Andrew Ho, Helen Blau and Adelaida Palla led a study that found drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen can inhibit the ability of muscle tissue to repair itself in mice. (Image credit: Scott Reiff)

The Stanford team discovered that a molecule called Prostaglandin E2 or PGE2 is released during the inflammatory response and stimulates muscle repair by directly targeting the EP4 receptor on the surface of muscle stem cells. The interaction between PGE2 and EP4 causes muscle stem cells to divide and robustly regenerate muscle tissue.

Senior author on the study, Dr. Helen Blau, explained her team’s interest in PGE2-mediated muscle repair in a news release,

“Traditionally, inflammation has been considered a natural, but sometimes harmful, response to injury. But we wondered whether there might be a component in the pro-inflammatory signaling cascade that also stimulated muscle repair. We found that a single exposure to prostaglandin E2 has a profound effect on the proliferation of muscle stem cells in living animals. We postulated that we could enhance muscle regeneration by simply augmenting this natural physiological process in existing stem cells already located along the muscle fiber.”

Further studies in mice revealed that injury increased PGE2 levels in muscle tissue and increased expression of the EP4 receptor on muscle stem cells. This gave the authors the idea that treating mice with a pulse of PGE2 could stimulate their muscle stem cells to regenerate muscle tissue.

Their hunch turned out to be right. Co-first author Dr. Adelaida Palla explained,

“When we gave mice a single shot of PGE2 directly to the muscle, it robustly affected muscle regeneration and even increased strength. Conversely, if we inhibited the ability of the muscle stem cells to respond to naturally produced PGE2 by blocking the expression of EP4 or by giving them a single dose of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug to suppress PGE2 production, the acquisition of strength was impeded.”

Their research not only adds more evidence against the using NSAID painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin to treat sore muscles, but also suggests that PGE2 could be a natural therapeutic strategy to boost muscle regeneration.

This cross-section of regenerated muscle shows muscle stem cells (red) in their niche along the muscle fibers (green). (Photo courtesy of Blau lab)

PGE2 is already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to induce labor in pregnant women, and Dr. Blau hopes that further research in her lab will pave the way for repurposing PGE2 to treat muscle injury and other conditions.

“Our goal has always been to find regulators of human muscle stem cells that can be useful in regenerative medicine. It might be possible to repurpose this already FDA-approved drug for use in muscle. This could be a novel way to target existing stem cells in their native environment to help people with muscle injury or trauma, or even to combat natural aging.”

Scientists find new stem cell target for regenerating aging muscles

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

Young Arnold (wiki)

Young Arnold (wiki)

Today I’m going to use our former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example of what happens to our muscles when we age.

One of Arnold’s many talents when he was younger was being a professional bodybuilder. As you can see in this photo, Arnold worked hard to generate an impressive amount of muscle that landed him lead roles in movies Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator.

Older Arnold

Older Arnold

If you look at pictures of Arnold now (who is now 68), while still being an impressively large human being, it’s obvious that much of his muscular bulk has diminished. That’s because as humans age, so do their muscles.

Muscles shrink with age

As muscles age, they slowly lose mass and shrink (a condition called sarcopenia) because of a number of reasons – one of them being their inability to regenerate new muscle tissue efficiently. The adult stem cells responsible for muscle regeneration are called satellite cells. When muscles are injured, satellite cells are activated to divide and generate new muscle fibers that can repair injury and also improve muscle function.

However, satellite cells become less efficient at doing their job over time because of environmental and internal reasons, and scientists are looking for new targets that can restore and promote the regenerative abilities of muscle stem cells for human therapeutic applications.

A study published earlier this week in Nature Medicine, identified a potential new target that could boost muscle stem cell regeneration and improved muscle function in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

β1-integrin is important for muscle regeneration

Scientists from the Carnegie Institute of Washington found that β1-integrin is important for maintaining the homeostasis (or balance) of the muscle stem cell environment. If β1-integrin is doing its job properly, muscle stem cells are able to go about their regular routine of being dormant, activating in response to injury, dividing to create new muscle tissue, and then going back to sleep.

When the scientists studied the function of β1-integrin in the muscles of aged mice, they found that the integrin wasn’t functioning properly. Without β1-integrin, mouse satellite cells spontaneously turned into muscle tissue and were unable to maintain their regenerative capacity following muscle injury.

Upon further inspection, they found that β1-integrin interacts with a growth factor called fibroblast growth factor 2 (Fgf2) and this relationship was essential for promoting muscle regeneration following injury. When β1-integrin function deteriorates as in the muscles of aged mice, the mice lose sensitivity to the regenerative capacity of Fgf2.

Restoring muscle function in mice with muscular dystrophy

By using an antibody to artificially activate β1-integrin function in the muscles of aged mice, they were able to restore Fgf2 responsiveness and boosted muscle regeneration after injury. When a similar technique was used in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, they observed muscle regeneration and improved muscle function.

Muscle loss seen in muscular dystrophy mice (left). Treatment with beta1 intern boosts muscle regeneration in the same mice (right). (Nature Medicine)

Muscle loss seen in muscular dystrophy mice (left). Treatment with B1-integrin boosts muscle regeneration in the same mice (right). (Nature Medicine)

The authors believe that β1-integrin acts as a sensor of the muscle stem cell environment that it maintains a balance between a dormant and a regenerative stem cell state. They conclude in their publication:

“β1-integrin senses the SC [satellite cell] niche to maintain responsiveness to Fgf2, and this integrin represents a potential therapeutic target for pathological conditions of the muscle in which the stem cell niche is compromised.”

Co-author on the study Dr. Chen-Ming Fan also spoke to the clinical relevance of their findings in a piece by GenBio:

“Inefficient muscular healing in the elderly is a significant clinical problem and therapeutic approaches are much needed, especially given the aging population. Finding a way to target muscle stem cells could greatly improve muscle renewal in older individuals.”

Does this mean anyone can be a body builder?

So does this study mean that one day we can prevent muscle loss in the elderly and all be body builders like Arnold? I highly doubt that. It’s important to remember these are preclinical studies done in mouse models and much work needs to be done to test whether β1-integrin is an appropriate therapeutic target in humans.

However, I do think this study sheds new light on the inner workings of the muscle stem cell environment. Finding out more clues about how to promote the health and regenerative function of this environment will bring the field closer to generating new treatments for patients suffering from muscle wasting diseases like muscular dystrophy.

Stem cell stories that caught our eye: sexual identity of organs, upping the game of muscle stem cells, mini guts produce insulin

/ Don Gibbons / 1 Comment

Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun.

A new sexual identity crisis—in our organs. With the transition from Mr. to Ms. Jenner and other transsexual news this year, it seems inevitable that a research paper would come out suggesting we may all have some mosaic sexual identity. A team in the U.K. found that the stem cells that develop our organs can have varying sexual identities and that can impact the function of the organ.

The organ in question in this case, intestines in fruit flies, is smaller in males than in females. By turning on and off certain genes the researchers at the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Science Centre found that making stem cells in the gut more masculine reduced their ability to multiply and produced smaller intestines. They also found that female intestines were more prone to tumors, just as many diseases are more common in one sex than the other.

In an interview with Medical News Today, Bruno Hudry, the first author on the paper, which is published in Nature, talked about the likelihood that we all have some adult cells in us with genes of the opposite sex.

 “This study shows that there is a wider spectrum than just two sexes. You can be chromosomally, hormonally or phenotypically female but still having some specific adult stem cells (here the stem cells of the intestine) acting like male. So it is hard to say if someone is “really” male or female. Some people are simply a mosaic of male and female cells within a phenotypically ‘male’ or ‘female’ body.”

Hurdry speculated that if the results are duplicated in humans it could provide a window into other sex-linked differences in diseases and could be a matching factor added to the standard protocol for blood and organ donations.

 

Reprogramming stomach to produce insulin.  The stem cells in our gut show an efficiency not seen in most of our organs. They produce a new lining for our stomach and intestine every few days. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the insulin-producing cells in our pancreas rank poorly in self renewal. So, what if you could get some of those vigorous gut stem cells to make insulin producing beta cells? Turns out you can and they can produce enough insulin to allow a diabetic mouse to survive.

mini stomach

A mini-gut with insulin-producing cells (red) and stem cells (green).

A team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute manipulated three genes known to be associated with beta cell development and tested the ability of many different tissues—from tail to snout—to produce beta cells. A portion of the stomach near the intestine, which naturally produces other hormones, easily reprogrammed into insulin producing cells. More important, if the first batch of those cells was destroyed by the team, the remaining stem cells in the tissue quickly regenerated more beta cells. Since a misbehaving immune system causes type 1 diabetes, this renewal ability could be key to preventing a return of the disease after a transplant of these cells.

In the lab the researchers pushed the tissue from the pylorous region of the stomach to self-organize into mini-stomachs along with the three genetic factors that drive beta cell production.  When transplanted under the skin of mice that had previously had their beta cells destroyed, the mice survived. The genetic manipulations used in this research could not be used in people, but the team is working on a system that could.

 “What is potentially really great about this approach is that one can biopsy from an individual person, grow the cells in vitro and reprogram them to beta cells, and then transplant them to create a patient-specific therapy,” said Qiao Zhou, the senior author. “That’s what we’re working on now. We’re very excited.”

Medicalxpress ran a story about the work published in Cell Stem Cell.

 

muscle stem cells

Muscle stem cells generate new muscle (green) in a mouse.

Better way to build muscle.  Stem cells behave differently depending on what environment they find themselves in, but they are not passive about their environment. They can actively change it. A CIRM-funded team at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) found that fetal muscle stem cells and adult muscle stem cells make very different changes in the micro-environment around them.

Fetal muscle stem cells become very good at generating large quantities of new muscle, while the adult stem cells take the role of maintaining themselves for emergencies. As a result, when major repair is needed like in muscular dystrophies and aging, they easily get overwhelmed. So the SBP team looked for ways to make the adult stem cells behave more like their fetal predecessors.

 “We found that fetal MuSCs remodel their microenvironment by secreting specific proteins, and then examined whether that same microenvironment can encourage adult MuSCs to more efficiently generate new muscle. It does, which means that how adult MuSCs normally support muscle growth is not an intrinsic characteristic, but can be changed,” said Matthew Tierney, first author of the study in an institute press release distributed by Newswise.

The results point to paths for developing therapies for a number of muscle wasting conditions.