There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Skeletal muscle is the largest tissue in the body and loss of its function or its
regenerative properties results in debilitating musculoskeletal disorders. Understanding
the mechanisms that drive skeletal muscle formation will not only help to unravel
the molecular basis of skeletal muscle diseases, but also provide a roadmap for recapitulating
skeletal myogenesis in vitro from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). PSCs have become
an important tool for probing developmental questions, while differentiated cell types
allow the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In this Review, we provide
a comprehensive overview of skeletal myogenesis from the earliest premyogenic progenitor
stage to terminally differentiated myofibers, and discuss how this knowledge has been
applied to differentiate PSCs into muscle fibers and their progenitors in vitro.