The phenotypic complexity of myogenic clones.

A single cell isolated from cultured 8-day leg muscle may, when subcultured, yield a myogenic clone. A myogenic clone consists of myotubes and mononucleated cells. When such a myogenic clone is subcultured, large numbers of mononucleated cells are recovered. These mononucleated cells histologically and biochemically are indistinguishable from authentic fibroblasts cultured under the same conditions: they synthesize (alpha1)(2)alpha2 chains of collagen, large amounts of hyaluronic acid, and modest amounts of chondroitin sulfate. These mononucleated cells, however, will not chondrify when grown under culture conditions known to permit presumptive chondroblasts to differentiate terminally. These findings demonstrate that there is a population of single cells in 8-day muscle that is neither a myoblast nor a fibroblast, but is the common progenitor for cells in the myogenic and fibrogenic lineages: this progenitor, however, is beyond the point of readily yielding chondrogenic cells. These findings are discussed in terms of the limited number of phenotypic options open to differentiating cells in each of the successive compartments of their respective lineages.