Development of a High-Yield Isolation Protocol Optimized for the Retrieval of Active Muscle Satellite Cells from Mouse Skeletal Muscle Tissue

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Difficulties often encountered in separating and purifying active muscle satellite cells (MSCs) from skeletal muscle tissues have limited the supply of cells for muscle therapy and artificial meat production. Here, we report an effective isolation protocol to economically and conveniently retrieve active MSCs from skeletal muscle tissues in mice. METHODS AND RESULTS: We optimized an enzyme-based tissue digestion protocol for isolating skeletal muscle-derived primary cell population having a large number of active MSCs and described a method of differential plating (DP) for improving purity of active MSCs from skeletal muscle-derived primary cell population. Then, the age of the mouse appropriate to the isolation of a large number of active MSCs was elucidated. The best isolation yield of active MSCs from mouse skeletal muscle tissues was induced by the application of DP method to the primary cell population harvested from skeletal muscle tissues of 2-week-old mice digested in 0.2% (w/v) collagenase type II for 30 min at 37℃ and then in 0.1% (w/v) pronase for 5 min at 37℃. CONCLUSIONS: The protocol we developed not only facilitates the isolation of MSCs but also maximizes the retrieval of active MSCs. Our expectation is that this protocol will contribute to the development of original technologies essential for muscle therapy and artificial meat industrialization in the future.