Five transcriptional factors reprogram fibroblast into myogenic lineage cells via paraxial mesoderm stage

It is hard to supply satellite cells as a cell source for therapy of muscle degenerative disease since the sampling of muscle tissue is very invasive to a patient with muscular disease. Direct conversion allows us to get specific cell types by transduction of defined transcriptional factors. To induce myogenic direct conversion, we transduced five transcriptional factors including Pax3, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, and Esrrb into mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We found that the transduction of the five transcriptional factors induced myogenic direct conversion of fibroblast. We revealed that the transduced cells with the five transcriptional factors were converted to myogenic lineage cells through a paraxial mesoderm-like stage. The expression level of myogenic-related genes of the transduced cells gradually increased as the passage increased. The induced myogenic lineage cells differentiated into muscle fibers <i>in virto</i> and <i>in vivo</i>. The current study revealed that the five transcription factors generated myogenic lineage cells from fibroblast via a paraxial mesoderm stage. The induced myogenic lineage cells may have a potential being applied as cell source for degenerative muscle disease.