Satellite Cell Enhanced TEMR

Ellen Mintz

Our lab has previously shown significant improvement in muscle function and histological landmarks in TEMR treated animals following volumetric muscle loss (VML) injury. Despite this success, there is still room for functional improvement. One of the ways we aim to address this is to include muscle satellite cells in the TEMR formulation. Satellite cells are the classic muscle stem cell, and powerfully contribute to muscle regeneration and repair following injury. A single satellite cell proliferates and differentiates to produce more mature progenitor cells, which will ultimately fuse and become mature myofibers. Within the scope of this project, satellite cells will be added to augment the current population of muscle progenitor cells on the TEMR construct, and then implanted into one of our rat models of VML. We hope to observe increased functional recovery with this more complete recapitulation of the endogenous skeletal muscle niche. Our collaborators on the project are the Rando lab at Stanford University, the Walters lab at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, and the Marini lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Figure 1: A satellite cell is identified on the TEMR construct in close proximity to other TEMR cells. The satellite cells were isolated, seeded onto the TEMR construct, and allowed to adhere for 4 hours. Cells were stained for PAX7 and DAPI.