Skeletal muscle-resident MSCs and bone formation

• Muscle mesenchymal progenitors can generate bone-marrow containing bone in pathological conditions.
• Muscle and Bone mesenchymal stem cells can’t be currently be discriminated by markers.
• Multiple mechanisms have been proposed modulating the contribution of muscle mesenchymal progenitors to bon regeneration, but such contribution has not been conclusively proven.

Recent research has highlighted the importance of bone and muscle interactions during development and regeneration. There still remains, however, a large gap in the current understanding of the cells and mechanisms involved in this interplay. In particular, how muscle-derived cells, specifically mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), can impact bone regeneration or lead to pathologic ectopic bone formation is unclear. Here, a review is given of the evidence supporting the contribution of muscle-derived MSC to bone regeneration and suggesting a critical role for the inflammatory milieu.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Muscle Bone Interactions”.