Researchers from Spain and Portugal have discovered a process of muscle regeneration based on the nuclear migration of muscle cells and independent of stem cells. This finding will improve the understanding of the cell machinery involved in muscle repair.

Until now, we knew that muscle repair could happen through a very complex process involving stem cells. A recent study led by researchers in Spain and Portugal describes an alternative model for understanding the restoration of muscle architecture in health and disease, presenting a cell-autonomous repair process independent of muscle stem cells.

The authors found that localised injuries activate a self-repair mechanism independent of stem cells in mice and humans. Muscle injury triggers a set of molecular signals that attract the nuclei of muscle cells to the damaged site. These nuclear movements increase the amount of messenger RNA (mRNA) in the area. These mRNA molecules are translated into proteins that act as “construction blocks” that repair the tissue.

This groundbreaking study results from the collaboration of researchers at the University Pompeu Fabra, the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, the Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the Molecular Medicine Institute João Lono Antunes and has recently been published at the prestigious journal Science.

You can read the full research article HERE.

This post is based on an article in Spanish by SINC.