New method helps researchers create functional leg muscles in the lab

A potential new method of creating mature, functional skeletal muscles in the lab has been successfully demonstrated by an international team of researchers.

Scientists from Italy, Israel and the UK used muscle precursor cells from mice that had been genetically modified to produce a growth factor that stimulates blood vessel and nerve growth from the host.

This allowed them to produce a graft that was then implanted on to the surface of the skeletal muscle underneath the skin of the mouse, with mature muscle fibres forming a complete and functional muscle within several weeks.

Replacing a damaged muscle with the graft also resulted in a functional artificial muscle very similar to a normal Tibialis anterior, suggesting that this technique – if adapted successfully for humans – could lead to the creation of patient-specific treatments for muscle disorders.

Cesare Gargioli of the University of Rome, one of the lead authors of the study, said: "The morphology and the structural organisation of the artificial organ are extremely similar to if not indistinguishable from a natural skeletal muscle."