Muscle : a source of progenitor cells for bone fracture healing.BMC Medicine 2011

BMC Medicine 2011, 9:136 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-9-136
Published: 22 December 2011
Yves Henrotin
Bone repair failure is a major complication of open fracture leading to nonuninon of broken bone extremities and movement at the fracture site. This results in an important disability for patients. The role played by the periosteum and bone marrow progenitors in bone repair is now well documented. In contrast, limited information is available on the role played by myogenic progenitor cells in bone repair. In a recent article published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, Liu et al. have compared the presence of myogenic progenitor (-myo D lineage cells) in closed and open fracture. They showed that myogenic progenitors are present in open, but not closed fractures, suggesting that muscle satellite cells may colonize the fracture site in the absence of intact periosteum. Interestingly, these progenitors expressed sequentially a chondrogenic and, thereafter, an osteoblastic phenotype suggestive of a functional role in the repair process. This finding opens new perspectives for the research of orthopaedic surgical methods which could maximize myogenic progenitors access and mobilization to augment bone repair. Please see related article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/12/288