Team at Tokyo Medical and Dental University develops culture method to maintain human skeletal muscle cells in an undifferentiated state

The group of Tomohiro AZAWA of Tokyo University of Medical and Dental University and colleagues used the laminin E8 fragment, developed at Osaka University by protein engineering, and observed that undifferentiated human skeletal muscle satellite cells proliferated and divided, reproducing on culture dishes in the liquid phase. When transplanted into immunosuppressed mice, they grafted as mature skeletal muscle cells. It is expected that this method can be used to treat myopathy, or for personalized drug discovery screening using satellite cells derived from individual patients.

AMED news release, January 12, 2018