Bioengineering Seminar Series

“Specialized Properties of Adult Muscle Stem Cells”

Foteini Mourkioti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania

Muscle stem cells play a major role in muscle regeneration. Following muscle injury, muscle stem cells become active, proliferate, and fuse with the surrounding tissue, allowing for the full regeneration within a few days. Pax7 is a marker of muscle stem cells that is conserved across many species, including humans. To look at muscle stem cells in vivo in a live animal, a Pax7EGFP mouse model was generated by inserting an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) cassette in the Pax7 gene (Tichy et. al., Skeletal Muscle, 2018). This allowed for the expression of EGFP driven by endogenous promoter and regulatory elements. Using 2-photon microscopy, we were able to visualize for the first time muscle stem cells in vivo and have identified unique and novel properties of these cells that have never been reported previously. Moreover, the study of muscle regeneration has primarily relied on retrospective analysis of static images from tissue section histology. Our system allows for longitudinal studies of muscle regeneration in a substantial reduced number of experimental animals and gives us the opportunity to test therapeutic interventions to reveal how early pathological symptoms correlate with later disease outcomes. 

The Mourkioti lab has a long-term interest in understanding the fundamental aspects of skeletal muscle and cardiac function in normal or diseased conditions and in the practical aspects of manipulating these functions by using animal models and tissue engineering approaches for treatment intervention.


The Bioengineering Seminar Series is co-hosted by the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Event Details

Date: 
Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 11am to Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 12pm

Location:
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Room 1128

Phone:

For More Information Contact

Young Jang, Ph.D. - faculty host