Mammary tumor-bearing PyMT+ and Neu+ female mice, and age-matched non-tumor-bearing control females were sacrificed with CO2. Approximately 0.5 grams of muscles were dissected from the hind limb of each mouse. Mouse muscle dissociation kit (130–098-305) and mouse satellite cell isolation kit (130–104-268) were used to isolate mouse muscle stem cells (MuSC) following MACS Miltenyi Biotec manufacture’s protocols. Purified MuSC were stained with antibodies CD54-APC (116120; Biolegend) and CD82-PE (PA5–13228; Invitrogen) and analyzed as described previously 26 (link). Stained cells were acquired using a BD LSR II flow cytometer and data were analyzed using FlowJo software. Forward and side scatter were used to ensure that only live cells were considered in the analysis. Gating was done using appropriate PE (555749) and APC (555576) (BD Pharmingen) isotype control antibodies.