Fig. 1

Isolation and characterization of muscle SCs using the ICT method. a Schematic representation of the ICT method. b Representative bright field images of the heterogeneous muscle mononuclear cell culture from which SCs were isolated by ICT, and representative images of the ICT-isolated SCs at D2 and D4 in growth medium (GM) and at D3 after adding differentiation medium (DM) (n = 15 independent experiments). c Representative immunofluorescence images of ICT-isolated SCs stained for Pax7 (red), MyoD (green), and nuclei (blue) and a graph showing the percentage of cells positive for Pax7 and/or MyoD at day 3 of culture in GM (n = 3 independent experiments). d Representative immunofluorescence images of ICT-isolated SCs stained for myosin heavy chain (MHC) (red) and nuclei (blue) and a graph showing percent fusion after differentiation (4 days in GM followed by 3 days in differentiating medium (DM)) (n = 3 independent experiments). e Representative immunofluorescence images of ICT-isolated SCs and MB-isolated SCs stained for Myogenin (red) PDGFR⍺ (green) and nuclei (blue) and a graph showing percent PDGFR⍺⁺ cells at day 5 of culture in GM. f Representative bright field images of ICT- and magnetic beads (MB)-isolated SCs and a quantification graph showing percentage of myogenic cells in ICT- and MB-isolated SCs after differentiation at day 7 of culture (n = 3 independent experiments). Non-myogenic cells were identified as Pax7^-MyoD^-nuclei outside the myotubes. Scale bar = 100 μm. Error bars represent mean ± sem. *p < 0.05 by Student’s t test.