Richismita Hazra, Amity University Kolkata
The muscular system is an organ system that plays an essential role in maintaining our lives. It is the largest organ and accounts for 40% of body mass. Muscle tissues are uniquely identified for their capability of spontaneous regeneration. However, this feature of muscle tissue is greatly diminished in cases of severe injuries, tumor resection, or accidents resulting in volumetric muscle loss (VML).VML treatments include surgical interventions with autologous muscle flaps or grafts along with physical therapy. But such surgical treatment procedures often result in reduced muscular functioning thereby leading to graft failure in certain cases. Here arises the demand for additional therapeutic support for the improvement of muscle loss recovery.
A research team at the Centre for Nanomedicine in the Institute for Basic Sciences (IBS) in Seoul, South Korea, Yonsei University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a novel protocol that is expected to provide an effective treatment to VML. The treatment was achieved in a mouse model by employing a combination of direct cell reprogramming technology and a natural-synthetic hybrid scaffold.
Direct cell reprogramming is an efficient process that aims at providing effective cell therapy by allowing rapid regeneration of patient-specific target cells. This strategy uses autologous cells from the tissue biopsy. Fibroblasts are effective cells involved in wound healing. These cells can be converted to myogenic progenitor cells (iMPCs) with the aid of various transcription factors. This strategy was applied in providing iMPC for muscle tissue engineering. Polycaprolactone (PCL) was used as the material for the fabrication of porous scaffold. Muscle extracellular matrix (MEM) is a widely used natural biomaterial useful for the treatment of VML.
Researches have immense hope in hybrid scaffolds engineered with MEM that are expected to have a major potential in clinical applications. This process not only promotes muscle regeneration with elevated innervation and angiogenesis but also facilitates the recovery of functionality in damaged muscles.
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Source: Jin, Y., et al. (2021) Functional Skeletal Muscle Regeneration with Thermally Drawn Porous Fibers and Reprogrammed Muscle Progenitors for Volumetric Muscle Injury. Advanced Materials. doi.org/10.1002/adma.202007946.
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