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Short Communication |



From INSERM EMI 0011,* Université Paris XII, Créteil; Service de Radiothérapie,
Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil; Genethon III,
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unitié de Recherche Associée 1923, Evry; and Unitié Mixte de Recherche Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 7000,
Faculte de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
| Abstract |
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Evidence of a muscle stem-cell hierarchy came from the study of Pax7-/- mice.4 The muscles of these mice contain a normal number of multipotent stem cells but lack so-called satellite cells. This points to at least two distinct compartments in the muscle stem cell hierarchy: 1) the compartment of satellite cells that are resident cells found in an anatomical niche located beneath the muscle fiber basal lamina; these extensively studied cells mainly express specific markers of committed muscle precursor cells, such as M-cadherin and Pax7, and ensure postnatal skeletal muscle growth and regeneration through a well-documented sequence of activation, proliferation, and fusion events;5 and 2) the recently described compartment of interstitial muscle stem cells,6 that are extralaminal,6,7 express the stem cell markers CD346,7 and ScaI6,8,9 but not the markers of committed myogenic cells, and can differentiate into various cell constituents of the muscle tissue, eg, myogenic cells, endothelial cells, and adipocytes.6,7,10 Several authors have suggested that interstitial muscle stem cells may constitute a reservoir of satellite cells.6,8 Whether these cells reside and self-renew in muscle connective tissue from embryonic stages or can be recruited from BM during postnatal life remains undetermined.6,8
In the present study, we tracked BM-derived stem cells in both muscle connective tissue and satellite cell niches in irradiated mice transplanted with GFP-expressing BM-cells. We used immunocytochemistry on muscle tissue sections for position markers (basal lamina antigens), a panel of myogenic cell markers, the stem cell antigens CD34 and ScaI, and other cell-specific markers.
| Materials and Methods |
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B6 (C57BL/6) mice were transplanted with BM-derived cells from B6TgGFP transgenic mice [C57BL/6 TgN(actEGFP)Osb YO1] in which the GFP transgene is expressed under the control of a nontissue-specific promoter, chicken ß-actin with cytomegalovirus enhancer, as a cytoplasmic protein.11 In B6TgGFP mice, both BM cells and muscle fibers constitutively express GFP. Therefore, after BM transplantation, GFP may serve as an unambiguous marker for donor-derived cells in host muscle. B6 and B6TgGFP mice were housed in our level 2 biosafety animal facility and received food and water ad libitum. Before manipulations, animals were anesthetized using an intraperitoneal injection of chloral hydrate. This study was conducted in accordance with the European Community guidelines for animal care (Journal Officiel des Communutés Européennes, L358, December 18, 1986).
BM Transplantation
Briefly, donor BM cells were obtained by flushing femurs of B6TgGFP mice with Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium (Invitrogen, Paisley, UK), and washed twice in cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, Invitrogen). Retro-orbital injection of 3 to 5 x 107 BM cells in 0.1 ml of mouse serum and PBS (1:1), was done in 9.0-Gy-irradiated, 4-week-old B6 mice (60Co
-rays within 1 day before BM transplantation). After transplantation, mice received 10 mg/kg/day ciprofloxacin for 4 weeks to prevent infection during the aplastic phase.
Flow Cytometry Analysis
To quantify the amount of engraftment, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of transplanted mice were analyzed by flow cytometry using a XL cytometer (Beckman-Coulter, Hialeah, FL) before sacrifice, ie, at 1, 3, and 6 months after transplantation. Leukocytes were gated on, and GFP fluorescence was measured under the fluorescein isothiocyanate channel. All analyses and quantitation were performed using the System II software from Beckman-Coulter.
Tissue Preparation
Paraformaldehyde fixation was used to retain GFP within cells, rapid loss of the GFP signal being observed in fresh-frozen sections. At sacrifice time mice were anesthetized and sequentially transcardially perfused with PBS and buffered 4% paraformaldehyde. Whole muscle groups were then gently removed, postfixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 2 hours, and soaked in 10% sucrose in PBS for 2 hours and then in 30% sucrose overnight at 4°C. Whole muscle samples were snap-frozen in embedding medium (Tissue-Tek; Sakura) and serial 7-µm-thick cryosections were performed. All sections were then coverslipped with Vectashield mounting medium for fluorescence (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA) with or without a nuclear counterstaining by 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. Images were captured on a Zeiss Axiophot microscope (Carl Zeiss Inc., Germany) with an Orca ER digital camera (Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan) using Simple PCI (C-Imaging, Compix Inc.) software.
Immunohistochemistry
In all these experiments, muscle sections were gently trypsinized for 10 minutes at 37°C using commercial trypsin-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (Invitrogen) for antigen retrieval. Samples were blocked for 20 minutes in PBS/20% fetal calf serum/0.3% Triton X-100 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO). Primary antibodies were incubated with the sections at 37°C for 1 hour. Three 15-minute washings in PBS were performed between each incubation. Mouse monoclonal antibodies were used at the following concentrations: anti-NCAM (1:100; BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA), anti-M-cadherin (1:100; NanoTools, Teningen, Germany), anti-Pax7 (1:100; Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank), anti-laminin-1 (1:100, Sigma-Aldrich), anti-laminin-2 (1:100; Novocastra, New Castle Upon Tyne, UK) with M.O.M. kit (Vector Laboratories) allowing the use of mouse monoclonal antibodies for mouse tissues. The secondary antibody used was tetramethyl-rhodamine-isothiocyanate-conjugated goat anti-mouse (1:200, Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME). We also used biotinylated rat anti-mouse antibodies to CD34 (1:50), ScaI (1:50), CD11b (1:100), and CD45 (1:50) (BD Pharmingen) revealed by tetramethyl-rhodamine-isothiocyanate-conjugated streptavidin (1:400, Vector Laboratories).
Statistical Analysis
Unpaired Students t-test was used for all statistical analyses (GraphPad-InStat software).
| Results |
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Abundant GFP+ mononuclear cells appeared in muscle tissue after transplantation (Figure 1
; A to D). Their number increased from 15.9 per 100 muscle fibers at 1 month to 26.4 at 6 months (P < 0.03) in cross sections of the tibialis anterior muscle (Table 1)
. Labeling with anti-laminin 1 or 2 antibodies showed GFP+ mononucleated cells both inside and outside of the muscle fiber basal lamina (Figure 1B)
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| Discussion |
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While this study was in progress, two articles have reported the possible BM-derivation of the muscle satellite cells using GFP+ BM transplantation procedures.12,13
GFP+ satellite cells could not be identified by specific markers,12
or only expressed certain satellite cell markers such as c-met,
7-integrin, and Myf-5.13
We report herein that BM-derived satellite cells express the well-known markers M-Cad, Pax7, and NCAM.5
Moreover, previous studies used teased muscle fiber preparations, a procedure implying removal of connective tissue, thus precluding analysis of muscle interstitial cells. We extend previous observations on teased fiber preparations by demonstrating that stem cell marker-expressing cells found in connective tissue can derive from BM in adulthood.
ScaI, an early marker of murine hematopoietic stem cells14 , has been previously found expressed by mononuclear cells in skeletal muscle tissue.8 Such ScaI+ cells likely constitute one phenotype of muscle multipotent stem cells,8 called side population (SP) cells based on their ability to efflux the fluorescent dye Hoechst 33342.2,15 As in the present study, they are usually observed in the vicinity of endomysial vessels8 but virtually never in subliminal location.16 Muscle Sca1+ cells have been subdivided into CD45+ hematopoietic cells and CD45- cells that contain the bulk of the myogenic activity.17 Skeletal muscle ScaI+ cells also include both CD34- and CD34+ subpopulations.18
Distribution of CD34+cells in muscle is more controversial than that of Sca1+ cells.6 Indeed, CD34 expression by satellite cells was repeatedly reported,8,19,20 but could not be substantiated by immunoelectron microscopy.6 Because CD34 is a versatile marker expressed on in vivo and in vitro activation,21,22 it is possible that the in vivo fixation we used, as did Tamaki and colleagues,6 accounted for the relatively low number of CD34+ satellite cells observed in our study as compared to teased fiber studies.8,19
As in previous studies, BM transplantation was performed in mice irradiated at 9 to 10 Gy,12,13 a dose inducing a 66% decrease of the muscle satellite cell number.13 It is, therefore, likely that muscle irradiation behaves as a conditioning procedure, emptying satellite cell niches presumably favoring their subsequent occupancy by BM-derived cells. Our experiments were conducted in standard, nonexercise-enriched, conditions. Such conditions are associated with a rather low rate of GFP+ muscle fiber formation, whereas chronic exercise can induce a marked increase of GFP+ muscle fiber density.13 In this setting, the higher settlement rate of GFP+ M-cadherin+ (satellite) cells as compared to GFP+ ScaI+ (interstitial) cells likely reflected an imbalance between cell translocation from the interstitial compartment and the slow output toward muscle fiber formation. Therefore, the remarkable accumulation of BM-derived cells into satellite cell niches indirectly supports the view that extralaminal cells constitute a reservoir of satellite cells.6
GFP+ muscle fiber formation likely resulted from fusion of BM-derived cells with existing fibers, according to a phenomenon known as myonuclear accretion.23 Unlike other tissues, such as the central nervous system, where stem cells can misleadingly fuse with differentiated cells to form tetraploid cells of unknown significance,24 BM-derived stem cells likely achieved true myogenic differentiation in skeletal muscle, as suggested by the diploid status of GFP+ satellite cells.13 The BM cell subset that may give rise to muscle fibers, ie, hematopoietic stem cells or mesenchymal stem cells or both, remains controversial.25
It is too early to decide if BM transplantation will prove useful in the treatment of patients with muscular dystrophy in the future.26 Dystrophin restoration in mdx mice after allogenic BM transplantation2,12 remains far below the levels needed to provide clinical benefits in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It could be expected, however, that further studies aimed at characterizing the pathways for the homing of stem cells would aid in the improvement of the muscle settlement by BM cells.27,28 In addition to the fascinating new insights it provides on renewal of the skeletal muscle tissue, transplantation of GFP+ BM-derived cells constitutes an appropriate procedure to conduct such studies.
| Footnotes |
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Supported by the Association Française contre les Myopathies (grant no. 9319).
P.A.D. and F.C. contributed equally to this study.
Accepted for publication November 24, 2003.
| References |
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