Induction of Skeletal Muscle Progenitors and Stem Cells from human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the potential to differentiate into various types of cells and tissues including skeletal muscle. The approach to convert these stem cells into skeletal muscle cells offers hope for patients afflicted with skeletal muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Several methods have been reported to induce myogenic differentiation with iPSCs derived from myogenic patients. An important point for generating skeletal muscle cells from iPSCs is to understand in vivo myogenic induction in development and regeneration. Current protocols of myogenic induction utilize techniques with overexpression of myogenic transcription factors such as Myod1 (MyoD), Pax3, Pax7, and others, using recombinant proteins or small molecules to induce mesodermal cells followed by myogenic progenitors, and adult muscle stem cells. This review summarizes the current approaches used for myogenic induction and highlights recent improvements.