Volume 52 (2): 179-185, 2004 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Frequency of M-Cadherin-stained Satellite Cells Declines in Human Muscles During Aging
Institutes of Anatomy (
Correspondence to: Dr. Ida Er
To answer the question of whether the satellite cell pool in human muscle is reduced during aging, we detected satellite cells in 30-µm-thick transverse sections under the confocal microscope by binding of M-cadherin antibody. The basal lamina was detected with laminin. Nuclei were stained with bisbenzimide or propidium iodide. Satellite cells were counted by applying the disector method and unbiased sampling design. To determine if there are age-related differences in muscle fiber types, morphometric characteristics of muscle fibers were examined on thin sections stained for myofibrillar ATPase. Autopsy samples of vastus lateralis muscle from six young (28.7 ± 2.3 years) and six old (70.8 ± 1.3 years) persons who had suffered sudden death were analyzed. Numbers of satellite cells per fiber length (Nsc/Lfib) and number of satellite cells per total number of nuclei (satellite cell nuclei + myonuclei) (Nsc/Nnucl) were significantly lower in the old group (p< 0.05). We demonstrate the importance of proper sampling and counting in estimation of sparsely distributed structures such as satellite cells. Our results support the hypothesis that the satellite cell fraction declines during aging. (J Histochem Cytochem 52:179185, 2004)
Key Words: aging human satellite cells skeletal muscle stereology
SATELLITE CELLS are quiescent cells positioned between the plasmalemma and the basal lamina of skeletal muscle fibers (Mauro 1961
During postnatal growth, myonuclei are added to growing fibers by fusion of satellite cells (Moss and Leblond 1971
According to the literature, in adult muscles satellite cell nuclei represent about 36% of all muscle nuclei (Schmalbruch and Hellhammer 1976
In human muscles, some authors reported that aged muscle contains a smaller fraction of satellite cells (Schmalbruch and Hellhammer 1976 In this study we have worked out a protocol ensuring proper counting of satellite cells, with the aim of determining whether the number of satellite cells in human muscles is reduced during aging. To obtain reliable data on the satellite cell frequency, it was necessary (a) to find a proper method enabling identification of satellite cells, (b) to apply unbiased sampling and counting procedures, (c) to take a sufficiently large sample of satellite cells, and (d) to measure a proper parameter that would express satellite cell frequency comparably under different physiological and pathological conditions.
Satellite cells can be reliably identified on the electron microscopic level by their position between the sarcolemma and the basal lamina of skeletal muscle. Although different markers have been introduced for satellite cell identification, such as M-cadherin (M-cad) (Irintchev et al. 1994
Our main aim was to find out whether this M-cad-positive majority of satellite cells declines with aging, using unbiased stereological methods for cell counting in combination with confocal microscopy. This approach enables us to evaluate satellite cells efficiently so that a sufficiently large sample can be evaluated, i.e., on average approximately 100 satellite cells per sample (Gundersen and Jensen 1987
Autopsy samples of vastus lateralis muscle were excised from the border between the middle and the distal part of the femur in two groups of men who had suffered sudden death, one young group (aged 28.7 ± 2.3 years) and the other old (aged 70.8 ± 1.3 years). Samples were excised 624 hr postmortem from one leg only, i.e., one muscle was studied in each subject. Six muscles from each group were analyzed. From each muscle six samples were taken, three from the superficial and three from the deep part. They were protected by Tissue Tek OCT and aluminum foil frozen in liquid nitrogen. Sections were cut with a ReichertJung Frigocut 2800 at -23 to -25C. The following set of sections was cut from each sample: (a) three 30-µm-thick transverse sections with an interval of 100 µm to demonstrate basal lamina, satellite cells, and their nuclei for satellite cell counting per fiber length using the unbiased optical disector principle, which is based on focusing through a thick tissue section (see below); (b) one additional 30-µm-thick transverse section to demonstrate nuclei and basal lamina, for counting all muscle nuclei (i.e., myonuclei + satellite cell nuclei) per fiber length, also using the optical disector principle; (c) one 10-µm-thick longitudinal section to demonstrate the z-line with desmin, for measuring sarcomere length; and (d) two 10-µm-thick transverse sections from each sample to stain for myofibrillar ATPase activity at pH 9.4 and pH 4.3 for determination of morphometric characteristics of muscle fiber types.
Immunohistochemical Procedures (a) Satellite cells were demonstrated by double staining of M-cad and laminin. After rinsing in PBS-T, normal goat serum 1:5 was applied for 25 min to reduce background staining. Sections were further incubated overnight in primary rabbit polyclonal antibody against M-cad (1:50) (Institute of Physiology; Bonn, Germany) and 2 hr with goat anti rabbit Alexa Fluor 488 (1:500) (Molecular Probes; Eugene, OR). After rinsing in PBS-T, the basal lamina was detected by overnight incubation with monoclonal antibodies against laminin (1:1000) (Sigma; St Louis, MO) followed by 2 hr with goat anti-mouse Alexa-546 antibody (1:500) (Molecular Probes). Bisbenzimide (1 mg/ml PBS, diluted 1:1000; 47 min) was used to stain nuclei. Sections were analyzed with a two-channel Zeiss LSM 510 confocal microscope using the Zeiss Plan-Neofluar oil immersion x40 objective (NA 1.3), M-cad in green and laminin in red fluorescence. Green and red fluorescence was excited with an argon (488 nm) and He/Ne (543 nm) laser. Emission signal was filtered using a narrow band (505530 nm) and a LP 560-nm filter. Because it was not possible to use UV excitation in our confocal microscope, the position of nuclei was controlled under a conventional fluorescent Zeiss microscope. (b) On additional sections, laminin and myonuclei were demonstrated. After rinsing in PBS-T, normal goat serum 1:5 was applied for 25 min. Sections were further incubated overnight with monoclonal anti-laminin antibodies (1:1000) (Sigma), and 2 hr with goat anti-mouse Alexa Fluor 488 antibody (1:500). Nuclei were stained with propidium iodide (Molecular Probes) diluted 1:1500 in 0.3 M NaCl and 0.03 M sodium citrate, pH 7.0, for 5 min. Red myonuclei beneath the green basal lamina were analyzed using the above confocal microscope with the x40 objective. Longitudinal sections were incubated with normal rabbit serum 1:5 for 30 min and overnight with monoclonal anti-human desmin (1:100) antibody (DAKO; Glostrup, Denmark), followed by secondary peroxidase-conjugated rabbit anti-mouse antibodies (1:80) (DAKO) for 1 hr. Peroxidase was visualized with diaminobenzidine. The sections were analyzed under a Nikon Eclipse E800 microscope using a planfluor x60 objective (NA 0.85).
Histochemistry
Sampling
Stereological Analysis The following stereological parameters were estimated: number of satellite cells per fiber length, Nsc/Lfib; number of satellite cells per number of nuclei (i.e., myonuclei + nuclei of the satellite cells), Nsc/Nnucl; number of nuclei per fiber length, Nnucl/Lfib; number of satellite cells and nuclei in 1 cm3 of muscle tissue, Nsc/Vm. To enable comparison of data obtained from specimens frozen at different sarcomere length, the number of satellite cells per fiber length, Nsc/Lfib, and the number of nuclei per fiber length, Nnucl/Lfib, were corrected to a reference sarcomere length (2.5 µm).
The number of satellite cells per fiber length was thus calculated by the following formula:
The number of nuclei per fiber length was calculated by the following formula:
To enable comparison with similar studies in which satellite cell profiles and profiles of myonuclei were counted in thin sections, Nsc/Lfib was recalculated to the number of satellite cells per fiber profile (Nsc/Nfib) within a 10-µm transverse section. This value was not corrected by the sarcomere length because such correction was not applied in other studies. The number of satellite cells per fiber profile Nsc/Nfib was determined as a ratio between the satellite cell number and the number of fiber profiles (within a 10-µm-thick section) multiplied by 100%.
Morphometric Analysis
Statistics
The number of satellite cells was determined by counting their nuclei, positioned between the basal lamina and M-cad stained satellite cell membranes (Figure 1a) . The number of nuclei was provided by counting all nuclei positioned underneath the basal lamina (Figure 1b) (see Sajko et al. 2002
On average, 117 satellite cells (35200) within 3824 myofiber profiles (13525350) were counted per muscle. The number of satellite cells per fiber length was significantly larger in the young than in the old group, and so was the number of satellite cells per number of nuclei and number of satellite cells per number of fiber profiles in a 10-µm transverse section. Although the number of satellite cells in 1 cm3 of muscle tissue (Nsc/Vm) appeared to be higher in young muscles, it was not significantly different between the two groups because of large interindividual variability (relative SE 20% in the young vs 12% in the old group). All above parameters exhibited larger interindividual variability in the young than in the old group (Table 1).
On average, 1329 nuclei (4101652) within 638 myofiber profiles (1381167) were counted per muscle. The average number of myonuclei per fiber length was increased in the old group compared to the young one; however, the difference was not significant. The number of satellite cells per fiber profile in a 10-µm-thick transverse section (Nsc/Nfib), which is just Nsc/Lfib recalculated to 10 µm instead of to 1 mm, was significantly different among both groups similarly to Nsc/Lfib (Table 1). Because Nsc/Nfib was not corrected to the sarcomere length, this might mean that the differences in sarcomere length, at which muscles were frozen, were rather random, i.e., not dependent on the age of muscles, and so they did not essentially affect the final result. To get data on the sarcomere length we cut the same sample which had been cut transversally also longitudinally, assuming that we measured at least some identical fibers that were captured in transverse sections. Correction was based on six randomly chosen fibers from each sample, i.e., altogether on 36 fibers per muscle. In our samples we found no significant differences among morphometric features of muscle fiber types (VV, NN, A, D, P) between the young and the old group (Table 2).
In this study, our original contributions to the knowledge of satellite cell distribution in human muscles include the following: (a) for the first time M-cad was applied as a marker for satellite cells in a quantitative study in human muscles; (b) satellite cells were sampled according to the rules of systematic uniform random sampling; (c) an unbiased method for satellite cell counting was applied; and (d) a sufficiently large sample was analyzed. Applying M-cad as a marker for satellite cells, we have proved that, in human vastus lateralis muscle, the frequency of satellite cells declines during aging. We are aware that, thus far, no one has unequivocally proved that M-cad or any other marker stains all satellite cells in human muscles. Therefore, our results hold true only for those satellite cells that are M-cad-positive, which is, we assume, the majority.
From our own experiences, M-cad is a very sensitive marker that most probably deteriorates very quickly. It evidently deteriorates if the morphology of the tissue is not very well preserved or else if the tissue section does not stick tightly to the coverslip. Such samples were excluded, and consequently that muscle was not analyzed. Compared to mouse or rat, in human muscles M-cad stained membranes are thinner, which means that the staining needs more enhancement. Special care should be taken that bleaching is minimized as much as possible to keep satellite cells detectable. Some satellite cells could well be lost because of being beyond the sensitivity of the method. Poor penetration of antibodies into the thick tissue section could also be a reason for the calculated low frequency of satellite cells. In this regard, we have carefully focused through all our captured stacks of images and have noted a similar incidence of satellite cells in images within the upper and lower portions of the 20-µm-thick stacks. This probably means that antibodies penetrated similarly into all our thick sections and that the possible poor penetration similarly affected all our muscle samples. More detailed discussion on the binding of M-cad antibodies to human satellite cells, penetration of antibodies, bleaching of fluorescent markers, and other problems regarding the sampling and counting procedures, as well as corrections to the different sarcomere lengths, can be found in Sajko et al. (2002) We have made every effort to carefully minimize any bias in our measurements, whether due to technical reasons or to sampling and counting procedures. Taking into account that satellite cells are very sparse and unevenly distributed in skeletal muscles, to obtain reliable data it is absolutely crucial to measure satellite cells according to a very carefully prepared protocol.
In previous studies on satellite cell frequency in a human muscle, the size of samples was too small, and therefore our data are hardly comparable with such studies. In studies using electron microscopy, satellite cell counting is much more tedious, and it is therefore very difficult to evaluate a satellite cell sample of sufficient size. This is probably the reason why, often, such small samples of satellite cells were taken in such studies (6 satellite cells per person, Schmalbruch and Hellhammer 1976
To relate satellite cell number to the number of myonuclei, we also counted muscle nuclei (satellite cell nuclei + myonuclei). Thus far, only a few authors have counted numbers of nuclei per human muscle fiber (Vassilopoulos et al. 1977
It should be noted that the number of nuclei, whether myonuclei or satellite cell nuclei, is not equal to the number of nuclear profiles found in a thin histological section. However, if the nuclei have the same size, the higher frequency of nuclear profiles indicates also the higher frequency of nuclei. Because counting nuclear profiles in a thin section can be faster than applying the disector principle to thick sections, this method can be used when a large number of samples must be evaluated in a short period of time, e.g., in the case of muscle biopsies for diagnostic purposes. However, tests for the size of nuclei should be made on the material of the same type. In such cases, when comparing frequency of nuclei estimated by both, profile counting and disector method, the results reflect the same trend (Renault et al. 2002
It was evident that variability in satellite cell parameters among subjects in the young group was much higher than in the old group. Several authors (Schultz and Darr 1990 The number of satellite cells per fiber length (Nsc/Nfib) proved to be a suitable parameter characterizing the satellite cell pool because it directly reflected changes in satellite cell number in relation to the individual muscle fibers. As expected, its variance is lower than that of Nsc/Nnucl because the density of myonuclei is not constant in different muscles. On the other hand, because myonuclei mostly represent progeny of satellite cells, the ratio between satellite cell numbers and numbers of total myonuclei gives an insight into the activity of satellite cells and their potential to divide.
In conclusion, our results support the assumption that the satellite cell pool is reduced during aging. Similar data have been provided in experimental animals. Snow (1977)
Supported by the European programme QLKG-1999-02034. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the most stimulating discussions on methods and results led on several meetings of the consortium.
This study was approved by the National Medical Ethics Committee of Slovenia. The valuable technical assistance of Jerneja Kmecl, Ivan Bla
Received for publication December 9, 2002; accepted October 8, 2003
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