Single-cell quantitative analysis of skeletal muscle cell population dynamics during regeneration and ageing

The skeletal muscle is populated by a variety of different mononuclear cell types that actively contribute to tissue homeostasis. When the tissue is stressed by exercise or by an acute or chronic insult, the different cell types are activated, exchange signals and initiate a finely-orchestrated regeneration process to prevent the loss of muscle mass. This cell variety is exacerbated by an additional intra population heterogeneity, where the cell population boundaries often lose their significance. Here, we applied a high-dimensional single-cell mass cytometry analysis to solve the cellular and molecular complexity of the muscle tissue in different physiological and pathological conditions. Taken together, our results provide a comprehensive picture both of muscle cell population homeostasis during ageing and of the changes induced by a perturbation of the system, be it chronic (dystrophy) or acute (cardiotoxin).