Skeletal muscle stem cell defects in burn-induced cachexia

..In an intriguing recent paper published in The Journal of Physiology, Fry and colleagues (Fry et al. 2016) explore the potential involvement of SCs and myonuclei apoptosis in young burn patients, a condition characterized by hyper-metabolism and extreme muscle wasting... ...The authors hypothesized that severe burn trauma could induce myonuclear apoptosis along with increased SC activation, in order to counteract the loss of myonuclei. In brief, the major findings by Fry and colleagues were (summarized in Table 1): (1) burn trauma induces myonuclear and SC apoptosis, (2) SC content is decreased although the content of active SCs is increased in burn patients, and (3) the latter two are associated with a generalized regenerative response (increased central nuclei and embMHC positive fibres) in burn patients.