A group of scientists at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has created what they say is the first contracting and reactive human muscle tissue to be grown in a lab.
The muscle was created with "myogenic precursor" cells, or cells that were already grown beyond the stem cell stage and will become muscle tissue, according to Gizmag. The research team stretched the cells over a supportive silicone scaffolding that can increase their growth in 3D as well as their area by 1,000 times their original size.
Filling the scaffolding with a growth medium gave the cells the chance to develop, and the structure was able to help form aligned and functioning muscle fibers. This helped the team grow close to 5 grams of muscle tissue for every 50 g of donor tissue.
The team then looked to see how much the muscle tissue resembled that of a human by testing the muscle tissue with a variety of external stimuli, resulting in the first instance of lab-grown muscle tissue contracting in response to electrical stimuli, CNET reported.
The nerve signal pathways were able to let nerves activate the muscle, and the tissue reacted to pharmaceutical drugs like statins and clenbuterol the same way human patients do. High doses of statins resulted in abnormal accumulation, and the clenbuterol allowed for increased contraction.
Nenad Bursac, associate professor of biomedical engineering and lead author of the study, says the new muscle can be used to test new medications in a safe environment so patients' health isn't at risk, CNET reported. The team also believes they can use the tissue to study diseases.
"One of our goals is to use this method to provide personalised medicine to patients," Bursac said. "We can take a biopsy from each patient, grow many new muscles to use as test samples and experiment to see which drugs would work best for each person."
The team published the study in the journal eLIFE.
