An autoradiographic study of satellite cell differentiation into regenerating myotubes following transplantation of muscles in young rats.

Satellite cells were traced autoradiographically during the regeneration of skeletal muscle in young Sprague-Dawley rats. Approximately 31% of the satellite cells in uninjured muscles appeared labelled after three injections of tritiated thymidine; none of the myonuclei were labelled in the same muscles. Four to six days after transplanting the radioactive muscles to non-radioactive littermates, regenerating myotube nuclei in the host appeared labelled. Thus, this study confirms that satellite cells in young rats can differentiate into multinucleated myotubes following muscle injury.