Mesoangioblasts are stem/progenitor cells derived from a subset of pericytes found in muscle that express alkaline phosphatase. They have been shown to ameliorate the disease phenotypes of different animal models of muscular dystrophy and are now undergoing clinical testing in children affected by Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. Here, we show that patients with a related disease, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2D (LGMD2D), which is caused by mutations in the gene encoding α-sarcoglycan, have reduced numbers of this pericyte subset and thus produce too few mesoangioblasts for use in autologous cell therapy. Hence, we reprogrammed fibroblasts and myoblasts from LGMD2D patients to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developed a protocol for the derivation of mesoangioblast-like cells from these iPSCs. The iPSC-derived mesoangioblasts were expanded and genetically corrected in vitro with a lentiviral vector carrying the gene encoding human α-sarcoglycan and a promoter that would ensure expression only in striated muscle. When these genetically corrected human iPSC-derived mesoangioblasts were transplanted into α-sarcoglycan-null immunodeficient mice, they generated muscle fibers that expressed α-sarcoglycan. Finally, transplantation of mouse iPSC-derived mesoangioblasts into α-sarcoglycan-null immunodeficient mice resulted in functional amelioration of the dystrophic phenotype and restoration of the depleted progenitors. These findings suggest that transplantation of genetically corrected mesoangioblast-like cells generated from iPSCs from LGMD2D patients may be useful for treating this type of muscular dystrophy and perhaps other forms of muscular dystrophy as well.

BackgroundAcquisition of the M1 or M2 phenotypes by microglia has been shown to occur during the development of pathological conditions, with M1 activation being widely involved in neurotoxicity in relation with the anatomical localization and the reactivity of subtypes of microglia cells. On the contrary, little is known on the ability of microglia to undergo M2 polarization by interleukin-4 (IL4), the typical M2a polarization signal for peripheral macrophages.MethodsRecombinant mouse IL4 was injected in the third cerebral ventricle of mice to induce brain alternative polarization. The mRNA levels of Fizz1, Arg1, and Ym1 genes, known to be up-regulated by IL4 in peripheral macrophages, together with additional polarization markers, were evaluated in the striatum and frontal cortex at different time intervals after central administration of IL4; in parallel, M2a protein expression was evaluated in tissue extracts and at the cellular level.ResultsOur results show that the potency and temporal profile of IL4-mediated M2a gene induction vary depending on the gene analyzed and according to the specific brain area analyzed, with the striatum showing a reduced M2a response compared with the frontal cortex, as further substantiated by assays of polarization protein levels. Of notice, Fizz1 mRNA induction reached 100-fold level, underscoring the potency of this specific IL4 signaling pathway in the brain. In addition, immunochemistry assays demonstrated the localization of the M2 response specifically to microglia cells and, more interestingly, the existence of a subpopulation of microglia cells amenable to undergoing M2a polarization in the healthy mouse brain.ConclusionsThese results show that the responsiveness of brain macrophages to centrally administered IL4 may vary depending on the gene and brain area analyzed, and that M2a polarization can be ascribed to a subpopulation of IL4-responsive microglia cells. The biochemical pathways that enable microglia to undergo M2a activation represent key aspects for understanding the physiopathology of neuroinflammation and for developing novel therapeutic and diagnostic agents.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12974-014-0211-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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