Hydrogel biomaterials that stiffen and soften on demand reveal that skeletal muscle stem cells harbor a mechanical memory

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Madl, Christopher M.; Wang, Yu Xin; Holbrook, Colin A.; Su, Shiqi; Shi, Xuechen; Byfield, Fitzroy J.; Wicki, Gwendoline; Flaig, Iris A.; Blau, Helen M.
• 署名单位: Stanford University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-13670
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2406787121
• 发表日期: 2024-08-27
• 关键词: self-renewal; muscular-dystrophy; satellite cells; PATHWAY; quiescence; stiffness; light; pten

摘要

Muscle stem cells (MuSCs) are specialized cells that reside in adult skeletal muscle poised to repair muscle tissue. The ability of MuSCs to regenerate damaged tissues declines markedly with aging and in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but the underlying causes of MuSC dysfunction remain poorly understood. Both aging and disease result in dramatic increases in the stiffness of the muscle tissue microenvironment from fibrosis. MuSCs are known to lose their regenerative potential if cultured on stiff plastic substrates. We sought to determine whether MuSCs harbor a memory of their past microenvironment and if it can be overcome. We tested MuSCs in situ using dynamic hydrogel biomaterials that soften or stiffen on demand in response to light and found that freshly isolated MuSCs develop a persistent memory of substrate stiffness characterized by loss of proliferative progenitors within the first three days of culture on stiff substrates. MuSCs cultured on soft hydrogels had altered cytoskeletal organization and activity of Rho and Rac guanosine triphosphate hydrolase (GTPase) and Yes- associated protein mechanotransduction pathways compared to those on stiff hydrogels. Pharmacologic inhibition identified RhoA activation as responsible for the mechanical memory phenotype, and single- cell RNA sequencing revealed a molecular signature of the mechanical memory. These studies highlight that microenvironmental stiffness regulates MuSC fate and leads to MuSC dysfunction that is not readily reversed by changing stiffness. Our results suggest that stiffness can be circumvented by targeting downstream signaling pathways to overcome stem cell dysfunction in aged and disease states with aberrant fibrotic tissue mechanics.