The reprogramming of terminally differentiated muscle cells to their proliferating progenitors holds not only theoretical value but is also therapeutically relevant. Our focus is on developing technology for enhancing regeneration of muscle and other tissue in vivo.
It is particularly challenging since myogenic proliferating cells not only undergo post-mitotic arrest, but also physically fuse with each other to form multinucleated myotubes.
We have used an irreversible Cre-Lox cell-fate lineage marking of myotubes, which for the first time demonstrated de-differentiation of mature multinucleated primary myotubes into proliferating precursors (by small moleucles with high frequency) that expand in vitro and repair muscle in vivo.
Our current focus is on developing this technology for enhancing regeneration of muscle and other tissue in vivo.
Dr. Preeti Paliwal (Conboy lab→ Project Leader at Cytokinetics).
Paliwal, P and Conboy IM*. Inhibitors of tyrosine phosphatases and apoptosis reprogram lineage marked differentiated muscle to myogenic progenitor cells. 2011 Chemistry&Biology, 18(9):1153-66. PMID: 2194475. 2015 US Patent: (US #9,163,215).
Complete Pubmed biblipgraphy: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/irinam.conboy.1/bibliograpahy/41080682/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending