Experiment grows new muscle in mens injured legs

Yesterday at 6:48 PM The Defense Department-funded project combines bioengineering with physical therapy to spur stem cells to turn into the right kind of tissue.

By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Scientists implanted thin sheets of scaffolding-like material from pigs into a few young men with disabling leg injuries and say the experimental treatment coaxed the mens own stem cells to regrow new muscle.

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Dr. Stephen Badylak, a surgery professor at the University of Pittsburgh and deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, holdings a sheet of scaffolding-like material derived from pig bladder. His team implanted a similar version into a handful of men with severe leg injuries and reported Wednesday that the experimental treatment helped regrow muscle.

The Associated Press/University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

The research, funded by the Defense Department, included just five patients, a small first step in the complex quest for regenerative medicine.

But the researchers described some of the men improving enough to no longer need canes, or to ride a bicycle again, after years of living with injuries that today have no good treatment.

The real rush for someone like myself is to see this patient being able to do these things and not struggle and have a smile on his face, said Dr. Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He led the study, which was reported Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Muscles have some natural ability to regenerate after small injuries. But if too much is lost from a car accident, a sports injury or, for soldiers, a bomb blast the body cant heal properly. Hard scar tissue fills the gap instead. Called volumetric muscle loss, a severe enough injury can leave an arm or leg essentially useless.

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Experiment grows new muscle in mens injured legs