Preparation and characterization of cell clones from adult human dystrophic muscle

We have developed a single cell-cloning technique to isolate pure cell populations from human adult skeletal muscle. The procedure is based on plating single cells derived from dissociated muscle biopsies on glass shards. With this technique we have prepared four cell clones derived from the same biopsy which each yielded between 10⁶ and 2 × 10⁷ cells. Two of these clones proved to be myogenic and two nonmyogenic, by using morphological and biochemical criteria. These clones maintained their phenotype for up to 50 days in culture even after freezing and thawing.