Measurement of Myonuclear Accretion In Vitro and In Vivo

Lola Lessard; Audrey Saugues; Julien Gondin; Rémi Mounier; Anita Kneppers

doi:10.1007/7651_2024_540

Measurement of Myonuclear Accretion In Vitro and In Vivo

Methods Mol Biol. 2024 Apr 23. doi: 10.1007/7651_2024_540. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lola Lessard¹, Audrey Saugues¹, Julien Gondin¹, Rémi Mounier¹, Anita Kneppers²

Affiliations

¹ Institut NeuroMyoGène, Physiopathologie et Génétique du Neurone et du Muscle, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS UMR5261, INSERM U1315, Lyon, France.
² Institut NeuroMyoGène, Physiopathologie et Génétique du Neurone et du Muscle, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS UMR5261, INSERM U1315, Lyon, France. anna.kneppers@univ-lyon1.fr.

PMID: 38647863
DOI: 10.1007/7651_2024_540

Abstract

Adult skeletal muscle stem cells (MuSC) are the regenerative precursors of myofibers and also have an important role in myofiber growth, adaptation, and maintenance by fusing to the myofibers-a process referred to as "myonuclear accretion." Due to a focus on MuSC function during regeneration, myofibers remain a largely overlooked component of the MuSC niche influencing MuSC fate. Here, we describe a method to directly measure the rate of myonuclear accretion in vitro and in vivo using ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU)-based tracing of MuSC progeny. This method supports the dissection of MuSC intrinsic and myofiber-derived factors influencing myonuclear accretion as an alternative fate of MuSCs supporting myofiber homeostasis and plasticity.

Keywords: EdU-based lineage tracing; Heterologous cell-cell fusion; Skeletal muscle hypertrophy; Skeletal muscle regeneration; Skeletal muscle stem cells.