First published online May 23, 2006
Development 133, 1201e (2006)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
A tail of regeneration
Cut the tail off a Xenopus tadpole and it quickly makes a new
muscle-packed tail. But are the muscles in this regenerated appendage formed
from de-differentiated myofibres (as in newts) or from stem cells? On p.
2303, Jonathan Slack
and colleagues provide strong evidence that muscle satellite cells - adult
stem cells that repair damaged muscles in mammals - rebuild the muscles in
regenerating Xenopus tails and reveal the role that the Pax7
transcription factor plays in this process. The researchers demonstrate that
regenerating Xenopus tails contain many dividing muscle satellite
cells, most of which express Pax7. Using Pax7 as a marker for satellite cells,
they show that these cells are responsible for forming the muscle masses of
the regenerated tail. Finally, they report that when pax7 function is
antagonized during tail regeneration, the tail reforms but it contains fewer
satellite cells. Thus, Pax7 is needed to maintain satellite cells as a stem
cell population but is not required for their differentiation into
myofibres.
Related articles in Development:
- Control of muscle regeneration in the Xenopus tadpole tail by Pax7
- Ying Chen, Gufa Lin, and Jonathan M. W. Slack
Development 2006 133: 2303-2313.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
