Stem cells derived from fat are able to form muscles better than others
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists from the University of California at San Diego (USA) came to the conclusion that the muscles are best made from fat tissue. Those who have long been going to pump excess fat into muscle mass, but are lazy even to even do physical exercise, can not worry - it's about turning fat cells into muscle through the stem cells stage. This is a fairly subtle molecular genetic procedure, which, however, can help many people with muscle injuries and various muscular dystrophies.
Replacing diseased tissue with healthy stem cells is an old idea, but in the case of muscle tissue, scientists are faced with a number of problems. Stem cells, programmed to become muscle, do not grow well in a new, musculoskeletal environment: they form disordered tangles and lumps that do not resemble muscle fibers.
In an article published in the journal Biomaterials, researchers suggest using stem cells derived from adipocytes, adipose tissue cells as an output. The main feature of correct cells should be the ability to grow on a hard surface and form ordered structures. The scientists took the usual bone marrow stem cells and reprogrammed adipose tissue cells and checked how they behave on different surfaces, from soft (like brain tissue) to hard, bone-like ones.
Cells derived from adipose tissue were 40-50 times better than conventional stem cells. Muscle proteins in the former adipocytes were organized in the correct order, as in real muscle cells. At the same time, such cells felt their surroundings better and quickly occupied the right "niche" on the surface. They even formed muscular ducts (a stage critical in the formation of muscles). And these tubes retained their structure when transferring it from the surface to the surface. They were connected with each other due to the common cytoskeleton, so at this stage they could withstand certain changes in the environment, transfers, transplants, etc.
However, before recommending them for clinical use, these cells should be tested for a variety of biochemical and cytological parameters that would verify the identity of the former fat cells to muscle.
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