Because the pig is a valuable candidate for a preclinical model of human cell therapy as well as an important food source, understanding a physiology of pig myogenic progenitors such as skeletal muscle satellite cells and myoblasts is required for cure of muscular diseases and improvement of meat production. For these reasons, we tried to isolate and culture the pig progenitor cells from skeletal muscle. Pig satellite cells, known as muscle stem cells, were isolated from biceps femoris of neonatal pigs by enzymatic digestion method. Muscle satellite cells are quiescent in uninjured muscle. Upon injury, they are activated into proliferating state, known as myoblasts, by growth factors and, in turn, differentiated forward to myocytes and myotubes. To trigger proliferation in vitro, the isolated satellite cells were cultured with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and dexamethasone (BMP4 inhibitor). As a result, the pig satellite cells were efficiently converted into proliferating myoblasts and stably maintained over an extended period. The myoblasts were confirmed by markers of PAX7, MYF5, and MYOD1. Our finding showed that modulating EGF and BMP4 signaling are essential for maintaining muscle stem cells. This culture method could be applied for a production of cultured meat and further basic research of muscle development.
This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in food, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (IPET) through the Development of High Value-Added Food Technology Program funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (MAFRA; 118042-03-1-HD020).

• Kwang-Hwan Choi(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University)
• Ji Won Yoon(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University)
• Minsu Kim(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University)
• Seung-Hun Kim(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University)
• Min-Gyun Lee(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University)
• Cheorun Jo(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University, Institute of Green Bio Science and Technology, Seoul National University)
• Chang-Kyu Lee(Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Major, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University, Institute of Green Bio Science and Technology, Seoul National University)