Developmental regulation of cell-surface glycoproteins in clonal cultures of human skeletal muscle satellite cells.

Pure populations of myogenic cells were obtained by cloning satellite cells from human skeletal muscle biopsies. Cell-surface glycoproteins at various stages of myogenesis were analysed by one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. A total of 14 distinct proteins were detectable at the cell surface, on the basis of their susceptibility to desialation by exogenous neuraminidase or their iodination by exogenous lactoperoxidase. Reproducible changes in lectin binding or iodination of eight of these proteins occurred during myogenesis. Only two of the developmentally regulated proteins were components of the detergent-insoluble extracellular matrix fraction. Developmental regulation of these two proteins was unaffected by growth of cultures in 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine to inhibit myogenesis. In contrast, developmental regulation of the other cell-surface proteins was inhibited by growth in 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine, suggesting that changes in these proteins are tightly coupled to satellite cell differentiation. These studies represent the first systematic analysis of the surface proteins of pure, clonally derived, primary cultures of normal myogenic cells.