'In body' muscle regeneration possible by harnessing natural healing powers

A new study has found that "in body" regeneration of muscle tissue might be possible by harnessing the body's natural healing powers.

According to a new study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, it may be possible to repair large segments of damaged muscle tissue was by simply mobilizing the body's stem cells to the site of the injury.

The researchers demonstrated the ability to recruit stem cells that can form muscle tissue to a small piece of biomaterial, or scaffold that had been implanted in the animals' leg muscle and revealed that the key to success was using proteins involved in cell communication and muscle formation to mobilize the cells.

Sang Jin Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of regenerative medicine and senior author, said that they designed a muscle-specific scaffolding system that can actively participate in functional tissue regeneration while working to leverage the body's own regenerative properties.

The study was reported online in the journal Acta Biomaterialia.