Nanoscale Whiskers From Sea Creatures Could Grow Human Muscle Tissue

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Nanoscale Whiskers From Sea Creatures Could Grow Human Muscle Tissue

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219044.php

Minute whiskers of nanoscale dimensions taken from sea creatures could hold the

key to creating working human muscle tissue, University of Manchester

researchers have discovered.

Scientists have found that cellulose from tunicates, commonly known as sea

squirts, can influence the behaviour of skeletal muscle cells in the laboratory.

These nanostructures are several thousand times smaller than muscle cells and

are the smallest physical feature found to cause cell alignment.

Alignment is important since a lot of tissue in the body, including muscle,

contains aligned fibres which give it strength and stiffness.

Cellulose is a polysaccharide - a long chain of sugars joined together - usually

found in plants and is the main component of paper and certain textiles such as

cotton.

It is already being used for a number of different medical applications,

including wound dressings, but this is the first time it has been proposed for

creating skeletal muscle tissue.

Tunicates grow on rocks and man-made structures in coastal waters around the

world.

Cellulose extracted from tunicates is particularly well suited for making muscle

tissue due to its unique properties.

University of Manchester academics Dr Eichhorn and Dr Gough,

working with PhD student Dugan, chemically extract the cellulose in the

form of nanowhiskers. One nanometre is one billionth of a metre and these minute

whiskers are only 10s of nanometres wide - far thinner than a human hair.

When aligned and parallel to each other, they cause rapid muscle cell alignment

and fusion.

The method is both simple and relatively quick, which could lead to doctors and

scientists having the ability to create the normal aligned architecture of

skeletal muscle tissue.

This tissue could be used to help repair existing muscle or even grow muscle

from scratch.

Creating artificial tissue which can be used to replace damaged or diseased

human muscles could revolutionise healthcare, and be of huge benefit to millions

of people all over the world.

Dr Eichhorn thinks the cellulose extracted from the creatures could lead to a

significant medical advancement. He added: " Although it is quite a detailed

chemical process, the potential applications are very interesting.

" Cellulose is being looked at very closely around the world because of its

unique properties, and because it is a renewable resource, but this is the first

time that it has been used for skeletal muscle tissue engineering applications.

" There is potential for muscle precision engineering, but also for other

architecturally aligned structures such as ligaments and nerves. "

PhD student Dugan has become the first UK student to win the American

Chemical Society's Cellulose and Renewable Material Division award for his work

on nanowhiskers.