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Stem cells found in bodybuilders bulging muscles could be used to treat wasting diseases and fight the infirmity of old age, researchers believe.

The cells play a role in helping muscles grow.

When injected into mice, they turned into cells that regenerate muscles to keep them strong.

Dr. Michael Rudnicki of Ottawa Canada, saud they could treat devastating wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy or keeping old people strong.

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A team of Memorial Sloan-Kettering investigators has reported for the first time a novel strategy to coax human embryonic stem cells (HESCs) to develop into cells that could potentially be used to repair the musculoskeletal system, including bone, cartilage, and muscle.

The researchers, led by Lorenz Studer of the Developmental Biology Program in the Sloan-Kettering Institute, achieved these results by exposing the HESCs -- which have the potential to develop into every kind of cell in the body -- to conditions that mimic the normal development of muscle cells in embryos.

In the past, efforts to develop cell-based therapies for muscle disorders, including injuries and various types of muscular dystrophy in children, have been hampered by the lack of suitable cells that could be transplanted or grafted into the body to repair muscle affected by disease or injury. Here, the team was able to generate virtually unlimited numbers of the cells to be used for future research, including studies of the basic biology of human muscle cells and using them to treat mouse models affected by muscle diseases that closely mimic the types of diseases seen in humans.

To confirm that the muscle cells would be viable long term, the investigators labeled them with a fluorescent protein and transplanted them into mouse models of muscle injury. They determined that the human cells survived in the mice up to six months after transplantation, and that the mice did not form tumors from the transplanted cells.

"These data are very encouraging and suggest that skeletal muscle cells derived from HESCs may become a powerful tool for basic studies and for cell therapy in skeletal-muscle disease," Dr. Studer said. "The next step in this work will involve testing the therapeutic effect of these cells in various animal models of muscle disease."


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Human Source Of Stem Cells With Potential To Repair
Muscle Identified
Science Daily — For the first time, scientists at
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have
discovered a unique population of adult stem cells
derived from human muscle that could be used to treat
muscle injuries and diseases such as heart attack and
muscular dystrophy.

In a study using human muscle tissue, scientists in
Children's Stem Cell Research Center - led by Johnny
Huard, PhD, and Bruno Péault, PhD - isolated and
characterized stem cells taken from blood vessels
(known as myoendothelial cells) that are easily
isolated using cell-sorting techniques, proliferate
rapidly and can be differentiated in the laboratory
into muscle, bone and cartilage cells.
These characteristics may make them ideally suited as
a potential therapy for muscle injuries and diseases,
according to Drs. Huard and Péault.

"Finding this population of stem cells in a human
source represents a major breakthrough for us because
it brings us much closer to a clinical application of
this therapy," said Dr. Huard, the Henry J. Mankin
Professor and vice chair for Research in the
Department of Orthopedics Surgery at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"To make this available as a therapy, we would take a
muscle biopsy from a patient with a muscle injury or
disease, remove the myoendothelial cells and treat the
cells in the lab. The stem cells would then be
re-injected into the patient to repair the muscle
damage. Because this is an autologous transplant,
meaning from the patient to himself, there is not the
risk of rejection you would have if you took the stem
cells from another source."

Working in dystrophic mice while searching for a cure
for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Dr. Huard's
laboratory team first identified a unique population
of muscle-derived stem cells with the ability to
repair muscle 8 years ago.

Dr. Péault, a professor in the Department of
Pediatrics, Cell Biology and Physiology at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
recognized the importance of determining the origin of
these muscle-derived stem cells. His team applied,
among others, techniques of confocal microscopy and
cell sorting by flow cytometry, which led to the
discovery in human muscle biopsies that these
myoendothelial cells are located adjacent to the walls
of blood vessels.

According to their study, myoendothelial cells taken
from the blood vessels are much more efficient at
forming muscle than other sources of stem cells known
as satellite and endothelial cells.

A thousand myoendothelial cells transplanted into the
injured skeletal muscle of immunodeficient mice
produced, on average, 89 muscle fibers, compared with
9 and 5 muscle fibers for endothelial and satellite
cells, respectively. Myoendothelial cells also showed
no propensity to form tumors, a concern with other
stem cell therapies.

Drs. Huard, Péault and colleagues in Children's Stem
Cell Research Center (SCRC) are researching and
developing numerous therapeutic uses for the
population of stem cells the SCRC team identified. One
of the most promising uses could be for the treatment
of DMD, a genetic disease estimated to affect one in
every 3,500 boys. Patients with DMD lack dystrophin, a
protein that gives muscle cells structure.

Dr. Huard is an internationally recognized cell
biologist conducting laboratory research into the
therapeutic use of stem cells to treat a variety of
musculoskeletal and orthopedics diseases and injuries.
In the lab, Dr. Huard is developing cutting-edge
therapies to regenerate bone and cartilage and to
repair damaged muscle. The application of these
therapies could range from the repair of heart muscle
damaged by heart attack to the repair of
sports-related bone, cartilage and muscle injuries.

Dr. Péault is internationally recognized principally
for his work on the prospective identification and
characterization of human hematopoietic (blood) stem
cells, of which his laboratory has also deciphered the
ultimate origin during embryonic life. Besides blood
development, his team also is investigating elusive
populations of multipotent stem cells that persist in
adult tissues, including dispensable ones like fat.
Such cells should be invaluable for the regenerative
therapy of multiple organs damaged by trauma, aging,
genetic or acquired diseases.


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More encouraging news there Traceyanne.

I don't know what they're on about most of the time but it certainly sounds impressive.

Interesting article Traceyanne.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7191852.stm

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 011708.php

you beat me to it Traceyanne, i was going to post that last bbc link.

Traceyanne .. good stuff ...

Have you ever heard anything of organ donors donating stem cells or is it too hard because they have to match the recipient ?

Peace ToMmY G

Ok Tommy now I have to nominate Traceyanne for FSHer Forum Reporter of the year ... is it ok with you ? Bravo

Peace ToMmY G

Ooooh Will i get a snazzy camera and note pad to go with my researchers outfit ?

Definately not Traceyanne ... its all web based : ) how about a sports car and private jet too ??? Dreamer .. your nothing but a dreamer .... reminds me of a song LOL

Peace ToMmY G