Cells corresponding to telocites have been detected in pathologically altered skeletal muscle

Abstract

A relatively recently described population of cells, apparently belonging to the tissue system of the internal environment, are the telocytes. Their peculiarities are not only the co-expression of CD117- and CD34-molecules, but also thin, indistinguishable processes at the light-optical level, whose length can be many times greater than the diameter of the cell body. In this regard, transmission electron microscopy remains the method of choice for their detection in tissues. Telocytes were found in the myocardium, connective tissue of the gallbladder, in gastrointestinal tract, in the stroma of the exocrine glands, the placenta, some vessels. However, data on the detection of telocytes in striated skeletal muscle tissue are either absent or still rare. This brief report demonstrates cells that, by their ultrastructural characteristics, can be identified as telocytes in the endomysium of gastrocnemius muscle in Bla/J mice (mutation in the dysferlin gene, DYSF).