Establishment of therapeutic strategy for degenerative muscular disease by mouse or human somatic stem cells

研究了造血干细胞对骨骼肌再生的贡献。精确观察了转GFP基因小鼠来源的c-kit+ Sca-1+ Lin-细胞沿着照射移植后小鼠骨骼肌的再生途径。移植后1周检测骨骼肌中GFP阳性表达。这种GFP阳性肌肉逐渐被GFP阴性肌肉取代，此后就无法检测到。移植后6个月，GFP阳性肌肉不能被确认。然而，令人惊讶的是，6个月时的单肌纤维培养揭示了可以产生GFP阳性肌纤维，并且证明了沿着肌纤维的沿着GFP阳性卫星细胞（骨骼肌干细胞）。这些结果表明，c-kit+ Sca-1+ Lin-细胞不仅在短期而且在长期都有助于骨骼肌的再生。

The contribution of hematopoietic stem cells into the regeneration of skeletal muscles was investigated. The regenerative pathway of mouse skeletal muscles after the transplantation of GFP-transgenic mouse-derived c-kit+ Sca-1+ Lin- cells along with irradiation was observed precisely. The GFP-positive skeletal muscles was detected 1 week after transplantation. This GFP-positive muscles were replaced by GFP-negative ones gradually and could not be detected thereafter. At 6 months after transplantation, GFP-positive muscles could not be confirmed. However, surprisingly, single muscle fiber culture at 6 months revealed that GFP-positive muscle fibers could be produced and GFP-positive satellite cells (skeletal muscle stem cells) was demonstrated along muscle fibers. These results imply that c-kit+ Sca-1+ Lin- cells contribute to the regeneration of skeletal muscle at not only short terms but also long terms.