Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA are one step closer to developing stem cell therapies to regenerate skeletal muscle in humans. Working in mice, the UCLA team discovered how to make lab-grown muscle stem cells persist within muscle tissue and form new muscle.
Their study is published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Healthy adult muscle tissue has a powerful ability to repair itself, which explains why muscle soreness after a tough workout generally lasts no longer than a few days, and why pulled or strained muscles require little medical intervention to heal. But researchers have long struggled to give this same regenerative ability to lab-grown stem cells in order to develop treatments for people whose muscles cannot heal on their own—for example, in the case of diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, as well as in severe muscle injuries and age-related muscle loss.
For years, researchers have been trying to direct human pluripotent stem cells—which can become any cell type in the body—to generate skeletal muscle stem cells that can function appropriately in living muscle and regenerate muscle fibers. However, most of these studies have been confined to lab dishes. To gain a better understanding of these cells’ function and potential, the UCLA researchers transplanted them into the muscles of mice.
“This was an enormous effort involving functionally testing the human cells that have long been studied in a dish,” said April Pyle, UCLA professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and holder of the George and Nouhad Ayoub Centennial Chair in Life Sciences Innovation.
2023-11-02 19:41:02
Article from phys.org rnrn