Self-healing engineered muscle grown in the laboratory

This article talks about scientists that have fabricated muscles that have the ability to act and regenerate like naturally forming muscles. It was formed by using both well-developed muscle fibers and a pool of muscle stem cells. The stem cells were called satellite cells and were used so when there was damage to the muscle, they were there to heal the damaged area. These stem cells provided a “niche” where they would stay until there was a body signal saying they were needed for regeneration of the damaged muscle. The muscles were first tested outside a living animal to see how they would react to both physical and chemical damages. After it was seen that they are very similar to natural muscles they were implanted into a mouse and the mouse was watched to see how the implanted muscle would react in a living animal. Based off of this study the scientists are hoping to figure out ways to engineer muscles to repair humans with muscle damages.

If this study results turn out to have promising, then after more time and development maybe whole working limbs can be formed for people born without limbs or people that have lost theirs. If this can turn into forming whole limbs that could help people that have only been able to turn to prosthetic limbs as an answer to their missing limbs. This article talks about the prosthetic s of the future; maybe the next step will be new limbs.

Gene Identification Leads to Muscle Repair

Researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, began to discover reasons behind muscle degeneration and ways to prolong its' effects. While reading an article about their research, the question was asked why patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have very little problems through childhood and adolescence, yet succumb to the disease in adulthood. It was also asked why elderly people who lose muscle strength following bed rest find it difficult or impossible to regain. They started exploring possibilities by researching into satellite cells. While satellite cells actively increase muscle mass during infancy, they decrease in number and become inactive unless activated by injury or degeneration. Scientists than looked into a gene called Ezh2, known to keep the activity of other genes in check. When they genetically inactivated Ezh2 in satellite cells of laboratory mice, the mice failed to repair muscle damage meaning satellite cells could not proliferate. Ezh2 expression is known to decline during aging. If scientists could find therapies to continue Ezh2 expression and continue the production of satellite cells, they could increase the lifespan and quality of life in DMD patients and the elderly.

"We will not be able to cure the muscular dystrophies with this approach because the mutation in the gene that causes the diseases would remain. But certainly, if we can extend the period in which the satellite cells proliferate and compensate for the underlying defect, we might increase the lifespan of people with muscular dystrophy. We could certainly increase their quality of life," said Dr. Sartorelli ( Senior investigator in the NIAMS Laboratory of Muscle Stem Cells and Gene Regulation and lead author of the study).