The wonders of medical science certainly does not cease to amaze. This time around, we have received word that there is a team of researchers who happen to hail from Italy, Israel and the United Kingdom, and they have worked together, achieving success when it comes to generating mature, functional skeletal muscles in mice after taking a new look at tissue engineering. This group of brilliant scientists managed to grow a leg muscle that kicked off from engineered cells cultured in a dish, resulting in a graft.
As a result, the subsequent graft was then implanted close to a normal, contracting skeletal muscle, allowing the brand new muscle to be nurtured further and grown. After a certain amount of time, this particular method could then be translated for use in patient-specific treatments for a large number of muscle disorders.
Muscle precursor cells known as mesoangioblasts were used by the scientists, and these were grown in the presence of a hydrogel (support matrix) in a tissue culture dish. These cells have been genetically modified, and that was in order to produce a growth factor that stimulates blood vessel as well as nerve growth from the host. Does this mean that we are closer to engineering an entire human being? Far from it, but this is definitely a step in the right direction at this point in time for science. [Press Release]
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