Hope for soft-tissue trauma, disease

A MELBOURNE breakthrough has paved the way for cell transplants to grow new muscles and provides hope of overcoming muscular dystrophy and soft-tissue cancers.

The world-first discovery also raises the potential to one day regrow tissue lost in serious accidents or convince the body to develop bigger and stronger muscles.

A team from St Vincent's Hospital pioneered a method of printing out strands of genetically altered muscle cells combined with a seaweed extract, which they have successfully transplanted into mice and caused them to grow new muscles.

The breakthrough could help people with muscular dystrophy and those who have had muscle loss through diseases such as cancer.

Lead researcher Assoc Prof Robert Kapsa said the discovery was an exciting step, but warned there was a long way to go before it was known if the treatment would be effective in humans.

"We have orientated this work towards things like loss of muscle due to soft-tissue cancers, surgical removal or people who have undergone some sort of trauma, who are able to have a piece of this seaweed substance filled with their own cells, and you can then grow a piece of their muscle back," he said.

"What we are looking at is more a muscle-building activity where we are trying to actually build muscle that has been ripped away from the bone.

"We will literally be regrowing muscles."

Muscular Dystrophy Foundation CEO Phil Martin said it was encouraging that research was being carried out, but it was important not to provide false hope.

"The importance of research is that it does give people who have MD a hope for a cure or a reduction in the deteriorating conditions."

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Hope for soft-tissue trauma, disease