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Monitoring Autophagy in Muscle Stem Cells

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Muscle Stem Cells

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1556))

Abstract

Autophagy is critical not only for the cell’s adaptive response to starvation but also for cellular homeostasis, by acting as quality-control machinery for cytoplasmic components. This basal autophagic activity is particularly needed in postmitotic cells for survival maintenance. Recently, basal autophagic activity was reported in skeletal muscle stem cells (satellite cells) in their dormant quiescent state. Satellite cells are responsible for growth as well as for regeneration of muscle in response to stresses such as injury or disease. In the absence of stress, quiescence is the stem cell state of these cells throughout life, although which mechanisms maintain long-life quiescence remains largely unknown. Our recent findings showed that autophagy is necessary for quiescence maintenance in satellite cells and for retention of their regenerative functions. Importantly, damaged organelles and proteins accumulated in these cells with aging and this was connected to age-associated defective autophagy. Refueling of autophagy through genetic and pharmacological strategies restored aged satellite cell functions, and these finding have biomedical implications. In this chapter, we describe different experimental strategies to evaluate autophagic activity in satellite cells in resting muscle of mice. They should facilitate our competence to investigate stem cell functions both during tissue homeostasis as in pathological conditions.

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Acknowledgments

Work in the authors’ laboratories has been supported by: MINECO, Spain SAF2012-38547, AFM, E-Rare/Eranet, Fundació Marató-TV3, MDA, EU-FP7 (Myoage, Optistem, and Endostem), and DuchennePP-NL, to PM-C; and ISCIII-FEDER, Spain (FIS-PS09/01267, FIS-PI13/02512, CP09/00184, PI14/01529) and CIBERNED to MM-V. L.G.-P. was supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship from Programa de Formación de Personal Investigador (Spain).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Cell Biology Group, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), CIBER on Neurodegenerative diseases (CIBERNED), Barcelona, Spain

      Laura García-Prat & Pura Muñoz-Cánoves

    2. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

      Pura Muñoz-Cánoves

    3. Tissue Regeneration Laboratory. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain

      Laura García-Prat & Pura Muñoz-Cánoves

    4. Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute-CIBERNED, Barcelona, Spain

      Marta Martínez-Vicente

    Authors
    1. Laura García-Prat
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    2. Pura Muñoz-Cánoves
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    3. Marta Martínez-Vicente
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Marta Martínez-Vicente .

    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Cell Biology Group, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, University Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain

      Eusebio Perdiguero

    2. Division of Biological Sciences and Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

      DDW Cornelison

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    García-Prat, L., Muñoz-Cánoves, P., Martínez-Vicente, M. (2017). Monitoring Autophagy in Muscle Stem Cells. In: Perdiguero, E., Cornelison, D. (eds) Muscle Stem Cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1556. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6771-1_14

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6771-1_14

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    • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

    • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6769-8

    • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6771-1

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