How to speed up muscle repair
2021-03-17
(Press-News.org) A study led by researchers at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering provides new insights for developing therapies for muscle disease, injury and atrophy. By studying how different pluripotent stem cell lines build muscle, researchers have for the first time discovered how epigenetic mechanisms can be triggered to accelerate muscle cell growth at different stages of stem cell differentiation.
The findings were published Mar. 17 in Science Advances.
"Stem cell-based approaches that have the potential to aid muscle regeneration and growth would improve the quality of life for many people, from children who are born with congenital muscle disease to people who are losing muscle mass and strength due to aging," said Shankar Subramaniam, distinguished professor of bioengineering, computer science and engineering, and cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego and lead corresponding author on the study. "Here, we have discovered that specific factors and mechanisms can be triggered by external means to favor rapid growth."
The researchers used three different human induced pluripotent stem cell lines and studied how they differentiate into muscle cells. Out of the three, one cell line grew into muscle the fastest. The researchers looked at what factors made this line different from the rest, and then induced these factors in the other lines to see if they could accelerate muscle growth.
They found that triggering several epigenetic mechanisms at different time points sped up muscle growth in the "slower" pluripotent stem cell lines. These include inhibiting a gene called ZIC3 at the outset of differentiation, followed by adding proteins called beta-catenin transcriptional cofactors later on in the growth process.
"A key takeaway here is that all pluripotent stem cells do not have the same capacity to regenerate," Subramaniam said. "Identifying factors that will prime these cells for specific regeneration will go a long way in regenerative medicine."
Next, the team will explore therapeutic intervention, such as drugs, that can stimulate and accelerate muscle growth at different stages of differentiation in human induced pluripotent stem cells. They will also see whether implanting specific pluripotent stem cells in dystrophic muscle can stimulate new muscle growth in animals. Ultimately, they would like to see if such a stem cell-based approach could regenerate muscle in aging humans.
INFORMATION:
Paper: "Temporal mechanisms of myogenic specification in human induced pluripotent stem cells." Co-authors of the study include Priya Nayak, UC San Diego; Alexandre Colas, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute; Mark Mercola, Stanford University; and Shyni Varghese, Duke University.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-03-17
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Pharmacogenomics is a valuable tool for health care providers to help prescribe the right drug for the right patient to enhance efficacy and avoid side effects.
A new research paper funded in part by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) shows a clear advantage of genetic testing in helping health care providers choose the appropriate anti-platelet drug. Testing helps determine if a patient carries genetic variants in CYP2C19 that cause loss of its function. These variants interfere with the body's ability to metabolize and activate clopidogrel, an anti-platelet medication.
Anti-platelet drugs are given to prevent complications from blood clotting after a procedure to open clogged arteries. These patients can use one of ...
2021-03-17
While scientists have known that creatures may adjust the timing of their daily routines based on starvation and predation, these shifts have only previously been measured based on data from a population at a single point in time. Now, using data collected as 71 elephant seals undertook their foraging migrations across the North Pacific Ocean, researchers report a view of how these animals divide their time between light and darkness to optimize tradeoffs between risks and rewards based on 7 months of data per seal, collected between 2004 and 2012. Their findings refute a hypothesis about how seals prioritize feeding. To better understand how seals divide their time between light ...
2021-03-17
The giraffe is a truly puzzling animal. With its exceptional anatomy and suite of evolutionary adaptations, the giraffe is an outstanding case of animal evolution and physiology. Now, an international team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Northwestern Polytechnical University in China have produced a high-quality genome from the giraffe and investigated which genes are likely to be responsible for its unique biological features.
The extraordinary stature of the giraffe has led to a long list of physiological co-adaptations. The blood pressure of the giraffe, for instance, is twice as high as in humans and ...
2021-03-17
Washington, DC-- Algae colonizing dead coral are upending scientists' ability to accurately assess the health of a coral reef community, according to new work from a team of marine science experts led by Carnegie's Manoela Romanó de Orte and Ken Caldeira. Their findings are published in Limnology and Oceanography.
Corals are marine invertebrates that build tiny exoskeletons, which accumulate to form giant coral reefs. Widely appreciated for their beauty, these reefs are havens for biodiversity and crucial for the economies of many coastal communities. But they are endangered by ocean warming, seawater ...
2021-03-17
Information on individuals' mobility--where they go as measured by their smartphones--has been used widely in devising and evaluating ways to respond to COVID-19, including how to target public health resources. Yet little attention has been paid to how reliable these data are and what sorts of demographic bias they possess. A new study tested the reliability and bias of widely used mobility data, finding that older and non-White voters are less likely to be captured by these data. Allocating public health resources based on such information could cause disproportionate harms to high-risk elderly and minority groups.
The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Stanford University, appears in the Proceedings of the ...
2021-03-17
Oncotarget published "Genomic and neoantigen evolution from primary tumor to first metastases in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma" which reported that prior work has characterized changes in the mutation burden between primary and recurrent tumors; however, little work has characterized the changes in neoantigen evolution.
These authors characterized genomic and neoantigen changes between 23 paired primary and recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumors.
Within these tumors, they identified 6 genes which have predicted neoantigens in 4 or more patients.
Within HNSCC tumors examined in this Oncotarget ...
2021-03-17
A sustainable, powerful micro-supercapacitor may be on the horizon, thanks to an international collaboration of researchers from Penn State and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Until now, the high-capacity, fast-charging energy storage devices have been limited by the composition of their electrodes -- the connections responsible for managing the flow of electrons during charging and dispensing energy. Now, researchers have developed a better material to improve connectivity while maintaining recyclability and low cost. ...
2021-03-17
(BOSTON) ¬-- Human cells typically transcribe half of their roughly 20,000 genes into RNA molecules at any given time. Just like with proteins, the function of those RNA species not only relies on their abundance but also their precise localization within the 3D space of each cell. Many RNA molecules convey gene information from the cell's nucleus to the protein-synthesizing machinery distributed throughout the cytoplasm (messenger RNAs or mRNAs), others are components of that machinery itself, while still different ones regulate genes and their expression, or have functions that remain to be discovered. Importantly, many diseases including cancer and neurological diseases have signatures that appear as changes in the abundance and distribution of RNAs.
To enable the analysis ...
2021-03-17
DALLAS - March 17, 2021 - UT Southwestern researchers have identified the structure of a key member of a family of proteins called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in three different shapes. The work, published online today in Cell, could eventually lead to new pharmaceutical treatments for a large range of diseases or infections including schizophrenia, lung cancer, and even COVID-19.
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are members of a broader super-family of proteins called Cys-loop receptors that function as ion channels on cell surfaces and are found in the membranes of many cell types. When the right molecule settles ...
2021-03-17
From climate change and carbon emissions to biodiversity and global hunger, humanity faces so many challenges that tackling them quickly is a daunting task. One solution that potentially addresses multiple issues could provide the impetus society needs to make significant progress.
An international team of 26 authors, including six at UC Santa Barbara, has just published a study in the prestigious journal Nature offering a combined solution to several of humanity's most pressing challenges. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date of where strict ocean protection can contribute ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] How to speed up muscle repair
