Before you read this paper
Body movement requires precise development of the motor apparatus. Increasing evidence suggests, however, that body movement itself regulates the development of motor apparatus. Movement-induced mechanical stimulus is believed to play critical roles in such regulation, although mechanical force in the developing organs has rarely been detected or observed.
The authors of this paper, entitled “Muscle Contraction Is Necessary to Maintain Joint Progenitor Cell Fate”, contended that they had provided a “strong supportive evidence” that movement-induced mechanical stimuli play a key role in regulation of organ progenitor cells. In this class, we aim first to critically examine the authors’ claim, and then to imagine and discuss what kind of approaches could be taken to go one step further to “conclude”, rather than simply “support”, that mechanical stimulus maintains progenitor cell fate (, regardless of the feasibility of such approaches). Participants do not have to remember in advance the anatomy of the joint or the names of developmental marker genes because they are not the primary focus of this class.
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