The changes that take place in stem cell populations with age are most studied in muscle tissue at the present time. Stem cells in old tissue spend ever more time quiescent rather than active, and thus the supply of new somatic cells needed to maintain and repair muscle declines. From the evidence accumulated to date this appears to be largely driven by changes in signaling rather than molecular damage to the stem cells themselves, though there is that as well. Researchers are attempting to catalog these signals with the hope of overriding them in order to restore youthful levels of regeneration in aged patients, and the research noted here is one example of this type of research. The decline in stem cell activity with age is thought to be part of an evolved balance between death by lack of tissue maintenance on the one hand and death by cancer on the other. Lower rates of stem cell activity reduces the chance of a damaged cell running amok. However, the use of stem cell therapies that change signals to put native cells back to work, and studies of telomerase gene therapy that has much the same effect, so far suggest that there is a fair amount of room to improve the situation without significantly raising the risk of cancer.
The development of the embryo during pregnancy is one of the most complex processes in life. Genes are strongly activated, and developmental pathways must do their job in a highly accurate and precisely timed manner. So-called Hox-genes play an important regulatory role in this process. Although remaining detectable in stem cells of adult tissues throughout life, after birth they are only rarely active. Now, however, researchers have shown that, in old age, one of these Hox-genes (Hoxa9) is strongly re-activated in murine muscle stem cells after injury; leading to a decline in the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle. Interestingly, when this faulty gene re-activation was inhibited by chemical compounds, muscle regeneration was improved in aging mice, thus suggesting novel therapeutic approaches aimed at improving muscle regeneration in old age.
The biggest surprise from the current study is that the re-activation of Hoxa9 after muscle injury in old age impairs the functionality of muscle stem cells instead of improving it. Originally, Hoxa9-induced developmental pathways are responsible for the proper development of body axes - for example, during development of the fingers of a hand. A decline in stem cell functionality leads to an unavoidable decrease in the regenerative capacity of the whole skeletal muscle. With age, this may weaken the muscular strength after injury. The courses of stem cell and tissue aging are yet to be completely understood. It has already been recognized that signals which control the development of the embryo become activated in aging stem cells. However, the regulator-genes controlling these signals have not yet been analyzed in aging. "From an evolutionary perspective, Hox-genes are very old. They regulate organ development across almost the entire animal kingdom - from flies up to humans. It is a huge surprise that the faulty re-activation of these genes leads to stem cell aging in muscle. This finding will fundamentally influence our understanding of the courses of aging. Surprisingly, old muscle stem cells did not show a faulty activation of the epigenome in quiescence - the resting stage in non-injured muscle. Only in response to a muscle injury, do the stem cells display an abnormal epigenetic stress response, which leads to the opening of DNA and, thus, to the activation of developmental pathways."
The researchers now plan to investigate whether a similar re-activation of embryonic genes is also causative for the loss of muscle maintenance in aging humans. Medical compounds that limit alterations in the epigenome may improve the regenerative capacity of muscles in old mice. Thus far, this approach is too unspecific and affects the modification of genes in several cells and tissues. For this reason, a collaborative study is primed to investigate whether a nanoparticle-induced, target-specific inhibition of Hox-genes in muscle stem cells is feasible and, if so, would it be sufficient to improve muscle regeneration and maintenance.
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