Extrinsic Regulation of Muscle Stem Cell Function Center for Developmental Biology

Home > Seminars and Events > Extrinsic Regulation of Muscle Stem Cell Function

Category	Seminar
Date and Time	2015-12-17 14:00 - 15:00
Venue	Seminar Room A7F
Speaker	C. Florian Bentzinger
Affiliation	Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Campus EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Title	Extrinsic Regulation of Muscle Stem Cell Function
Poster	click here to download(PDF)
Host	Takeshi Imai
Summary	Stem cells in adult tissues are controlled by intrinsic programming and extrinsic signals provided by the surrounding microenvironment, often referred to as the niche. Particularly, stem cells that maintain and repair skeletal muscle tissue are strongly dependent on extrinsic regulation. Fundamental properties of these cells, such as quiescence, self-renewal and the ability to differentiate, are largely determined by the composition of the niche. Diseases of the musculature lead to changes in the niche that negatively affect stem cell function. Importantly, alterations in the stem cell microenvironment also underlie the impaired regenerative capacity of muscle tissue that accompanies aging and certain multisystemic conditions. In spite of the importance of the muscle stem cell niche, its architecture and the regulatory signals it generates remain poorly understood. We recently started to systematically analyze the composition of the muscle stem cell niche and provide examples of how these insights can be exploited for therapeutic applications.