Skeletal muscle fiber with multiple nuclei

“Usually, each cell has exactly one nucleus. But the cells of our skeletal muscles are different: These long, fibrous cells have a comparatively large cytoplasm that contains hundreds of nuclei. But up to now, we have known very little about the extent to which the nuclei of a single muscle fiber differ from each other in terms of their gene activity, and what effect this has on the function of the muscle”—this observation from researchers at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine.  MORE

Image Credit:   C. Birchmeier Lab, MDC, Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine