Isolation and Culture of Single Myofiber and Immunostaining of Satellite Cells from Adult C57BL/6J Mice

Myofiber isolation followed with culture could recapitulate and visualize satellite cells (SCs) activation, proliferation, and differentiation. This approach could be taken to understand the physiology of satellite cells and the molecular mechanism of regulatory factors, in terms of the involvement of intrinsic factors over SCs quiescence, activation, proliferation and differentiation. Single myofiber culture has several advantages that the traditional approach such as FASC and cryosection could not compete with. For example, myofiber isolation and culture could be used to observe SCs activation, proliferation and differentiation at a continuous manner within their physiological "niche" environment while FACS or cryosection could only capture single time-point upon external stimulation to activate satellite cells by BaCl, Cardiotoxin or ischemia. Furthermore, transfection with siRNA or overexpression vector could be performed under culture to understand the detailed molecular function of a specific gene on SCs physiology. With these advantages, the physiological state of SCs could be analyzed at multiple designated time-points by immunofluorescence staining. In this protocol, we provide an efficient and practical protocol to isolate single myofiber from EDL muscle, followed with culture and immunostaining.