The advances in biomedicine are incredible.Recently, a team of biomedical engineers from Duke University in the United States have managed to create a muscle Very similar to the real one that is able to heal itself .The experiment has been carried out in mice, in which the skeletal muscle achieved was very similar to the real one.This muscle managed to regenerate so much in the laboratory as in the animal itself.
The study carried out tested the biodesigned muscle by literally looking through a window at the back of the live mouse.The new technique allowed real-time monitoring of muscle integration and maturation within an enclosure while the animal was walking.
"Both the muscle grown in the laboratory and The experimental techniques used are important steps towards achieving a viable muscle for study of diseases and treatment of injuries, ”said Nenad Bursac, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke. "The muscle we have made represents an important breakthrough for the field," Bursac said."It is the first time that the bio-designed muscles have contracted as strongly as the native neonatal skeletal muscle."
Through years of perfecting their techniques, a team led by Bursac and graduate student Marcos Juhas discovered that preparing muscles better requires two things: well-developed contractile muscle fibers and a pool of the muscle stem cells , known as satellite cells.
Each muscle has satellite cells in reserve, ready to activate after the injury and begin the process of The key to the success of the team was the successful creation of microenvironments-called niches-where these stem cells await their call to duty.
To put the muscle to the test, the engineers, by stimulating with electrical pulses, measured his contractile strength , proving that he was 10 times stronger than any previously biodesigned muscle.Then they gave him a toxin found in snake venom to show that satellite cells could activate, multiply and heal Successfully injured muscle fibers.
The same was subsequently tested in mice.
With the help of Greg Palmer, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the School of Duke University Medicine, the team inserted a muscle grown in the laboratory into a small recess in the back of live mice.Next, they covered this area with a glass panel.Every two days for two weeks, Juhas photographed the muscles implanted by the window to check your progress.
By genetically modifying the f You would go muscle to produce fluorescent flashes during calcium peaks-which cause the muscles to contract-researchers could see that the flashes became brighter when the muscle became stronger.
« We were able to see and measure in real time how blood vessels grew in implanted muscle fibers, and how they matured to match the strength of their native counterpart» , Juhas said.
Engineers are starting to work to see if their bio-designed muscle can be used to repair real muscle injuries and human diseases
« Can you vascularize, innervate and repair damaged muscle function? » Bursac asked.« That's what we're going to work in the next few years.»
Image: Baba G
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