Reversine-treated fibroblasts acquire myogenic competence in vitro and in regenerating skeletal muscle

Stem cells hold a great potential for the regeneration of damaged
tissues in cardiovascular or musculoskeletal diseases. Unfortunately,
problems such as limited availability, control of cell fate,
and allograft rejection need to be addressed before therapeutic
applications may become feasible. Generation of multipotent
progenitors from adult differentiated cells could be a very
attractive alternative to the limited in vitro self-renewal of several
types of stem cells. In this direction, a recently synthesized
unnatural purine, named reversine, has been proposed to induce
reversion of adult cells to a multipotent state, which could be
then converted into other cell types under appropriate stimuli.
Our study suggests that reversine treatment transforms primary
murine and human dermal fibroblasts into myogenic-competent
cells both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, this is the first study to
demonstrate that plasticity changes arise in primary mouse and
human cells following reversine exposure.