Stem cells offer hope for muscle repair
June 8, 2009
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Megan Ogilvie
HEALTH REPORTER
Ottawa scientists have discovered a way to boost the body's ability to repair muscle tissue, a finding that could lead to new treatments for debilitating muscular diseases.
The team identified a protein that increases production of adult stem cells in muscle, which in turn fuels tissue regeneration and leads to bigger, stronger muscles.
Michael Rudnicki, the study's lead author and scientific director of Canada's Stem Cell Network, said the discovery is an important step toward harnessing the power of stem cells to treat diseases such as muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting conditions.
"We've discovered a new pathway that controls the overall number of stem cells in tissue," said Rudnicki, who is also director of the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. "By stimulating that pathway, we can increase the number of those stem cells and enhance and accelerate repair in that tissue."
Rod McInnes, scientific director of the Institute of Genetics at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, called the study a "very exciting piece of work."
"It provides tremendous insight into the mechanisms that lead to the generation of muscle stem cells," he said. "And therefore it's important because it brings us a step closer, in the long run, to using muscle stem cells in cell replacement therapy for muscular diseases such as muscular dystrophy."
Rudnicki said the Wnt7a protein and its associated pathway appears to be a "universal mechanism" and may be an important control for stem cell production in other organs and tissues.
McInnes, who called Rudnicki the world's leading muscle stem cell biologist, agreed the finding would likely prove useful to stem cell experts in other fields.
The study, which was done using genetically altered mice, found animals that did not have the Wnt7a protein also did not have enough muscle stem cells to repair injured muscle. But when scientists engineered mice to overproduce the Wnt7a protein in leg muscles, the researchers saw an increase in stem cells in those muscles, enhanced regeneration and an 18 per cent increase in muscle mass.
"If all of us had our muscles increased by 20 per cent we would look very buff and very proud to go out on the beach," Rudnicki said. "We would be weightlifters, Arnold Schwarzeneggers."
After past press reports on his research, Rudnicki had calls from athletes and body builders interested in becoming test subjects.
"I don't respond," he said.
The study was published Friday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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