Canadian researchers have written a book chapter summing up the knowledge acquired in the field of muscle stem cells (also known as satellite cells):
- these cells, located at the periphery of the muscle fibre, are the basis of muscle regeneration,
- they have been studied here in the two very different contexts of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and a rare form of malignant tumour called rhabdomyosarcoma,
- deregulation at all stages of myogenesis has been observed identically in both conditions,
- however, the consequences are not the same: in DMD, differentiation is impaired and cells fuse prematurely, whereas in rhabdomyosarcoma, cell proliferation becomes anarchic.
This fundamental work once again highlights the key role of muscle stem cells and the fact that they could serve as a therapeutic target.
