Olivia Deantoni Rose Hills
Exploring the Mechanisms of Aged Muscle Repair with Mild Cold
Muscle stem cells (MuSCs) are the myogenic progenitors essential for muscle regeneration. However, aging impairs the myogenic function of MuSCs, leading impaired regeneration and contributing to the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength with age, termed sarcopenia. Sarcopenia decreases mobility, increases fall risk, and reduces overall quality of life. Effective skeletal muscle repair requires MuSCs to interact with fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs), which regulates fibrosis, adipogenesis and thus regeneration. Aged FAPs lead to significantly increased fibrosis contributing to reduced MuSCs function resulting in severely compromised repair in aged. Our laboratory has shown that mild cold exposure enhances aged MuSC activation ex vivo and rejuvenates aged muscle regeneration in vivo by reducing fibrosis. These findings suggest that cold exposure may influence both MuSC and FAP behavior. Therefore, we will investigate how reduced temperature affects FAP differentiation in aged muscle, with the goal of decreasing fibrosis and enhancing myogenesis during regeneration.
Message To Sponsor
I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to pursue research in muscle regeneration and aging this summer. Your generous support is opening the door for me to fully dive into this incredible opportunity and push my growth as a scientist. I am truly looking forward to building new skills, making meaningful contributions, and growing through this experience. Thank you so much for making this experience possible!