"...the skeletal muscle cell, which has a curious mode of development, a striking ability to modulate its differentiated character, and an unusual strategy for repair.
"New Skeletal Muscle Cells Form by the Fusion of Myoblasts
"The previous chapter described how certain cells, originating from the somites of a vertebrate embryo at a very early stage, become determined as myoblasts (that is, as precursors of skeletal muscle cells) and migrate into the adjacent embryonic connective tissue, or mesenchyme (see p. 943). As discussed on page 556, the commitment to be a myoblast (rather than, say, a fibroblast) seems to correspond to the activation of a specific master regulatory gene. After a period of proliferation, the myoblasts fuse with one another to form multinucleate skeletal muscle cells."
