Regeneration of Skeletal Muscle Induced by Satellite Cell Grafts

Abstract

Trauma to a skeletal muscle may be experimentally induced by various types of injury. This results in the necrosis of the injured muscle fibers followed by the degradation of cell debris and subsequent regeneration. Revascularization and the presence at the site of injury of myogenic stem cells, the “satellite” cells, are essential for the regeneration to take place (Allbrook 1981; Carlson and Faulkner, 1983). This sequence of degeneration — regeneration is observed in many genetically inherited myopathies among which the most dramatic is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Conspicuous foci of necrosis and regeneration are common in young patients and although active regeneration occurs particularly in the earlier stages of the disease, it is ineffective in preventing fiber loss and progression of the disease (Cullen and Mastaglia 1980). This leads to the replacement of the muscle fibers by a fibro-fatty tissue at more advanced stages of the disease and is accompanied by progressive weakness due to necrosis and loss of muscle fibers.