Skeletal muscle regeneration
Our skeletal muscles are capable of repairing themselves following injuries, such as those that occur during intense physical exercise. The presence of muscle soreness after exercise is one of the signs that the regeneration processes of muscle cells are taking place.
The repair of these large multi-nucleated cells with a very sophisticated internal architecture is possible thanks to the presence of satellite cells, which are the muscle stem cells responsible for regeneration. An alteration of the repair process has serious consequences on the maintenance of muscle mass, and can lead to various myopathies or to muscle wasting in elderly subjects.
In our laboratory, we study the process of muscle regeneration, using an in vitro model of muscle cell culture from human stem cells.