Muscle Mice

SilasMortimer writes "Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have accomplished that for which humankind has been desperate since the dawn of civilization: turning sad, injured regular mice into angry, beefed-up super-mice. Well, okay, there's no official word in the article about the rodents' emotional states, but certainly when stem cells were injected into mice with leg injuries, the muscle grew back... almost twice as big as it was before the injury [abstract, supplemental material (PDF)]. This has many exciting implications, from better healing after injuries to slowing down the aging process to a spike in the number of cases of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among cats. I, for one, refuse to perpetuate outdated memes. (But feel free to make up for the lack.)" If these mice are bred with those given previously discovered treatments to make them smarter and fearless, we might be in trouble.

Re:Possible professional sports abuse?

[Que_Ball]

I predict they won't even wait for this to be perfected.

Someone in a third world country is likely brewing up a batch of stem cells in their "lab" as we speak.

Maybe they will have it ready in time for London. Weight lifting, you were a sport once. Now it's just magic show where everyone wonders how they make the trick work.

Re:Possible professional sports abuse?

[SuricouRaven]

Every death is a lesson learned. I wouldn't be surprised if China ends up leading the world in advanced medicine, as they have two vital advantages: The money to pay for it, and the willingness to press ahead with potential technologies rather than spending ten years on five types of animal study and regulatory bickering.

Re:Possible professional sports abuse?

[Stooshie]

" ... deliberately injure muscle fibers ... "

That's what exercise does. I damages the cells which are then repaired by the body's normal systems. I suspect stem cell treatment just speed this up.