Enrichment and terminal differentiation of striated muscle progenitors in vitro

Enrichment and terminal differentiation of mammalian striated muscle cells is severely hampered by fibroblast overgrowth, de-differentiation and/or lack of functional differentiation. Herein we report a new, reproducible and simple method to enrich and terminally differentiate muscle stem cells and progenitors from mice and humans. We show that a single gamma irradiation of muscle cells induces their massive differentiation into structurally and functionally intact myotubes and cardiomyocytes and that these cells can be kept in culture for many weeks. Similar results are also obtained when treating skeletal muscle-derived stem cells and progenitors with Mitomycin C.