Ricerc@Sapienza

Skeletal muscle is composed of a large and heterogeneous assortment of cell populations that interact with each other to maintain muscle homeostasis and orchestrate regeneration. Although satellite cells (SCs) - which are muscle stem cells - are the protagonists of functional muscle repair following damage, several other cells such as inflammatory, vascular, and mesenchymal cells coordinate muscle regeneration in a finely tuned process. Fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs) are a muscle interstitial mesenchymal cell population, which supports SCs differentiation during tissue regeneration.

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, represent powerful tools for disease modeling and for therapeutic applications. PSCs are particularly useful for the study of development and diseases of the nervous system. However, generating in vitro models that recapitulate the architecture and the full variety of subtypes of cells that make the complexity of our brain remains a challenge.