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J. Cell Biol.,
Volume 144, Number 6, March 22, 1999 1113-1122
Muscle Cell Biology Group, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital,
London W12 0NN, United Kingdom
Myoblasts, the precursors of skeletal muscle
fibers, can be induced to withdraw from the cell cycle
and differentiate in vitro. Recent studies have also
identified undifferentiated subpopulations that can self-renew and generate myogenic cells (Baroffio, A., M. Hamann, L. Bernheim, M.-L. Bochaton-Pillat, G. Gabbiani, and C.R. Bader. 1996. Differentiation. 60:47-57;
Yoshida, N., S. Yoshida, K. Koishi, K. Masuda, and Y. Nabeshima. 1998. J. Cell Sci. 111:769-779). Cultured
myoblasts can also differentiate and contribute to repair and new muscle formation in vivo, a capacity exploited in attempts to develop myoblast transplantation
(MT) for genetic modification of adult muscle. Our
studies of the dynamics of MT demonstrate that cultures of myoblasts contain distinct subpopulations defined by their behavior in vitro and divergent responses
to grafting. By comparing a genomic and a semiconserved marker, we have followed the fate of myoblasts
transplanted into muscles of dystrophic mice, finding
that the majority of the grafted cells quickly die and
only a minority are responsible for new muscle formation. This minority is behaviorally distinct, slowly dividing in tissue culture, but rapidly proliferative after
grafting, suggesting a subpopulation with stem cell-like characteristics.
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