Recovering Strength

The strength and stability of your muscles can affect how severe an injury is, while recovery depends on how efficiently muscle stem cells generate new tissue to repair the damage. A new study into these stem cells has shown a surprising role of the protein laminin-α2. Rather than acting only as an external support, muscle stem cells produce laminin-α2 themselves to create a local environment that promotes their growth (pictured, mouse muscle stem cells in green surrounded by pink laminin-α2 following injury). This is particularly significant for people with LAMA2-related muscular dystrophy, a condition caused by mutations in laminin-α2 that leads to muscle weakness and wasting. Understanding how laminin-α2 normally supports healthy stem cells helps explain an underlying aspect of the disease. While existing treatments often focus on stabilising muscle fibres, effective therapies may also need to restore stem cells’ ability to produce laminin-α2 and support proper regeneration.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Timothy J. McGowan and colleagues
• Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communication, November 2025