Scientists Regenerate Rat Muscle Tissue 26
Zothecula writes Muscle lost through traumatic injury, congenital defect, or tumor ablation may soon be regenerated from within. A team of researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has shown how stem cells in the body of mice and rats can be mobilized to form new muscle in damaged regions. "Working to leverage the body’s own regenerative properties, we designed a muscle-specific scaffolding system that can actively participate in functional tissue regeneration," explains Sang Jin Lee, senior author on the study. This scaffold was implanted in the rats' tibialis anterior muscle (which is found below the knee), serving as a kind of home for the muscle progenitor cells to grow and develop.
I didn't even know Scientists HAD rat muscles! (Score:2)
I guess that explains the hunch...
Brain (Score:1)
Brain is the most wonderful organ there is
If they can regenerate brain cells using the stem cells, a lot of brain-related illnesses / injuries might be cured - from ALS to Alzheimer Disease to people suffering from brain hemorrhages / tumors / cancers to diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis which affected the brain, and so on
Who knows? They might even find ways to cure stupidity
Nerve control (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily. I'm sure this is still not nuanced enough, and someone with a better knowledge of anatomy is going to come in and correct me, but I seem to recall from middle school biology(yeah that's the level I'm working on here) that striated skeletal muscle strands work cooperatively naturally, without all them needing to be stimulated by nerves independently.
So, naturally you'd need some nerves in order to stimulate the chemical pathways that induce contraction and expansion among the muscle group,
Re: (Score:2)
That seems to be less than 1/2 of a solution. Nerve ending working in sync to create useful motion would be needed, no?
Partially correct. I was going to post saying that this was only half the solution for another reason.
A nerve needs to contact the muscle body which would allow control of the muscle, as a denervated muscle is mostly useless as it will atrophy away.
The other shoe that needs to drop is the fascial layer of the muscle. Without it the muscle is also useless. (Fascia [wikipedia.org] is the tough fiberous out layer of the muscle that provides structural integrity and allows the muscle to function - think tendons. Without
Big deal (Score:4, Funny)
I've been regenerating my own muscle tissue for years. Don't skip leg day, son
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Once we figure out rats we can then move on to pigs which share many traits with humans.
However once we can generate pig muscles then we can make an unlimited supply of bacon.
Now doesn't that sound good.
sez The Bubonic Plague: (Score:2)
"thanks for giving me Mobile."
It used to be bigger... (Score:1)
Ummm, ya, I need my junk "regenerated", I seem to have lost a foot of muscle tissue due to a birth defect.
Pitch that to a funding board and you will be swimming in money.
Mmmmmm! (Score:2)
Scientists Regenerate Rat Muscle Tissue
Dinner is served.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
It seems that there is definitely a chance of something like this working on damaged heart tissue. I posted a link to Extracelluar Matrix regeneration being researched at the University of Pittsburgh. Here is a video.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/medicines-cutting-edge-re-growing-organs/
Similar to Extracelluar Matrix (Score:1)
Interesting, but seems very similar to Extracelluar Matrix researched at the University of Pittsburgh (http://www.mirm.pitt.edu/badylak/)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/health/research/human-muscle-regenerated-with-animal-help.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Definitely some great progress being made in this field of study, and I for one, am glad of it.
RATS (Score:2)
House episode? (Score:1)
I smell a House episode where he finally is cured of his Vicodin addiction by elimination of the pain of the missing leg muscle...