Project: Skeletal muscle contraction and myofiber microenvironment 

About

Skeletal muscle is a remarkably plastic tissue that adapts to changes in contractile activity. This plasticity widely relies on the interactions between the myofiber, the muscle stem cells and their environment. We investigate how an increase in muscle activity induced by repeated, rigorously controlled and non-traumatic electrical stimulation (i.e., neuromuscular electrical stimulation protocol or NMES) regulates stem cell fate and their interactions with environmental cells in both healthy and cachectic muscle (cancer and sepsis).
We also seek to understand how muscle regeneration occurs after unaccustomed/too intense muscle contractions. We have developed a mouse model allowing the modulation of muscle damage severity. We investigate the cellular mechanisms involved in muscle regeneration in relation to the severity of muscle damage and sex in a physiological context.