Cellular metabolic rates in cultured primary dermal fibroblasts and myoblast cells from fast-growing and control Coturnix quail

Fibroblast cells have been extensively used in research, including in medicine, physiology, physiological-ecology, and conservation biology. However, whether the physiology of fibroblasts reflects the physiology of other cell types in the same animal is unknown. Dermal fibroblasts are responsible for generating connective tissue and involved in wound healing, but generally, this cell type is thought to be metabolically inactive until it is required at the site of tissue damage. Thus, one might question whether fibroblasts are a representative model system to portray the metabolic profile of the whole organism, as compared with cells isolated from other tissues, like muscle, brain or kidneys. To explore whether fibroblasts have the same metabolic profile as do myoblast cells, we cultured cells from day-old chicks of quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) selected for fast-growth or normal growth (our control group). Our results suggest that isolated primary fibroblasts and myoblast cells had higher rates of glycolysis, oxygen consumption and more mitochondria in the fast-growing line than in the control line. Our findings lend support for the idea that fibroblasts are a representative cell system to characterize the whole organism metabolic signature at the cellular-level. These data are striking, however, because fibroblasts had higher rates of metabolism for every parameter measured than myoblast cells isolated from the same individuals.