**1. Introduction**

The process of skeletal muscle formation in vertebrates begins from myogenic progenitors originating in the somites. However, somitic cells are the source of several cell lineages and only a subset are committed to a muscle fate [1]. Those cells destined for a muscle fate then under‐ go the process of myogenesis, during which the progenitors become specified and deter‐ mined as myoblasts, which will proliferate, migrate, and fuse to one another to form multinucleated myofibers [2]. Thus, myogenesis seem to be critical in myoblast alignment and fusion into multinucleated myotubes. And the formation of myotubes is central to skeletal muscle development.

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Extracellular matrix (ECM) has been considered as a structural scaffold between cells. It has been clear for many years that the ECM is a dynamic structure that influences cell behavior through the interaction of ECM molecules with each other, interaction with growth factors, and through cell– ECM signal transduction pathways [3]. Although the compositions of the ECM differ between tissues, all ECMs share the common function of structural support, cell adhesion, cell-to-cell communication, and differentiation [4]. Since the discovery that skeletal muscle ECM participate in the conversion of myoblasts to myotubes [5], the field of skeletal muscle physiology begins to focus on the relationship between muscle cells and ECM. In this review, we will give more details about the compositions of skeletal muscle ECM and how they affects muscle's normal functions.
