Are cultured human myotubes far from home?
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REVIEW
Are cultured human myotubes far from home? Vigdis Aas & Siril S. Bakke & Yuan Z. Feng & Eili Tranheim Kase & Jørgen Jensen & Sudip Bajpeyi & G. Hege Thoresen & Arild C. Rustan
Received: 5 February 2013 / Accepted: 3 May 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract Satellite cells can be isolated from skeletal muscle biopsies, activated to proliferating myoblasts and differentiated into multinuclear myotubes in culture. These cell cultures represent a model system for intact human skeletal muscle and can be modulated ex vivo. The advantages of this system are that the most relevant genetic background is available for the investigation of human disease (as opposed to rodent cell cultures), the extracellular environment can be precisely controlled and the cells are not immortalized, thereby offering the possibility of studying innate characteristics of the donor. Limitations in differentiation status (fiber type) of the cells and energy metabolism can be improved by proper treatment, such as electrical pulse stimulation to mimic exercise. This review focuses on the way that human myotubes can be employed as a tool for studying metabolism in skeletal muscles, with special attention to changes in muscle energy metabolism in obesity and type 2 diabetes. V. Aas (*) Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway e-mail: [email protected] S. S. Bakke : Y. Z. Feng : E. T. Kase : G. H. Thoresen : A. C. Rustan Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway J. Jensen Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway G. H. Thoresen Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway S. Bajpeyi University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
Keywords Skeletal muscle cells . Energy metabolism . Insulin resistance . Type 2 diabetes . Obesity
Introduction Satellite cells can be isolated from skeletal muscle biopsies, activated to proliferating myoblasts and differentiated into multinuclear myotubes in culture. These cell cultures represent an essential model system for intact human skeletal muscle and can be modulated ex vivo. The advantages of this system include: (1) the most relevant genetic background for the investigation of human disease (as opposed to rodent cell cultures), (2) the extracellular environment can be precisely controlled and (3) the cells are not immortalized, thereby offering the possibility of studying innate characteristics of the donor. This review will focus on the way that human myotubes can be used as a tool to study metabolism in skeletal muscles, with special attention to changes in muscle energy metabolism in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Limitations of this cell system and possible approaches for improving the current model will also be discussed.
Characteristics of human myotubes in vitro Satellite cells were discovered in 1961 by ele
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