Long-term persistence and migration of myogenic cells injected into pre-irradiated muscles of mdx mice

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to study the fate(s) of normal muscle precursor cells (mpc) which had been injected into the muscles of mdx mice. Right legs of mdx nu/nu mice were X-irradiated (18 Gray), to inhibit the proliferation of host mpc. Normal mpc were injected into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscles of these legs and the non-irradiated, contralateral legs. In pre-irradiated legs injected with normal mpc, the number of dystrophin-positive fibres was similar at 35, 49 and at 250 days after injection, but the number of dystrophin-negative fibres was much less at the latter time point, indicating prolonged survival of dystrophin-positive muscle fibres. Non-injected muscles neighbouring the ..