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CELL SIGNALLING

Signal relay in muscle growth

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 23, page 91 (2022)Cite this article

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Mechanical overload of skeletal muscles results in increased myonuclear number and muscle mass (hypertrophy), but the mechanisms involved in hypertrophic muscle expansion are elusive. Kaneshige et al. now show that skeletal muscle-resident mesenchymal progenitors are involved in relaying the mechanical signal of muscle overload to muscle stem cells (MuSCs) to induce their proliferation.

The authors surgically induced overload of the plantaris muscle in hind limbs of mice (by cutting the tendons), and observed an enhanced activation of mesenchymal progenitors followed by vigorous proliferation of MuSCs. Notably, depletion of mesenchymal progenitors inhibited MuSC proliferation and impaired the increase in muscle weight and size in the late phases of hypertrophic response.

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  1. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology http://www.nature.com/nrm/

    Paulina Strzyz

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  1. Paulina Strzyz
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Correspondence to Paulina Strzyz.

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Strzyz, P. Signal relay in muscle growth. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 23, 91 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00443-w

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