INV09

Stem cell-based therapy represents a challenge in the regenerative medicine field and at the same time a palpable opportunity to provide original therapeutic proposals for a wide variety of incurable diseases. Indeed, stem cells are now highlighted as promising sources for promoting tissue repair and/or functional recovery, considering their proliferation rate, functional multilineage differentiation and regeneration ability. Although their potential seems infinitely broad, they are nevertheless difficult to grasp insofar as they correspond to a heterogeneous group of versatile agents with properties that sometimes evolve rapidly and are highly dependent on numerous environmental parameters. Another factor that has emerged in recent years is the diversity of their modes of action, characterized notably by the ever-increasing discovery of a level of interaction with elements in their tissue niche. The result is a real complexity in defining the optimal conditions for generating these stem cells with a view to their in vivo administration, but also in presenting their preclinical potential with confidence with a view to their transfer to the clinic.

Over the last 15 years, we have sought to explore these criteria by setting up an analysis of a type of muscle-derived stem cells called MuStem placed in different muscle damage contexts. The aim was/is to determine the extent to which these cells could represent an interesting biological support for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for muscular dystrophies.