"A 40-Year-Old-Man WITH 20-Year-Old-Legs"..... Rebuilding Muscle Strength with Stem Cells

Following the previous article published by the Times mentioning famous footballers banking their babies' umbilical cord blood stem cells, this article expresses why athletes apart from footballers may be interested in this area.

Stem cells can treat diseases and save lives, but now their full range of potential is being explored in tissue regeneration - not just in repairing organs that fail- but to heal soft tissue injuries (think aching muscles) and according to the article "boost strength, endurance, and provide a lasting edge over the competition".

Paul Griffiths, managing director of an umbilical cord blood stem cell bank called Cryogenesis International in the UK believes that injecting stem cells into healthy muscles might "increase their size and even restore them to their youthful capacity".

"You could potentially find a 40-year-old man with 20-year-old legs," Paul Griffiths said.


SPORTS ETHICS

It is already well-known that some athletes are at a greater advantage than others, by taking advantage of environmental enhancements. Those who have adequate sponsorship can pursue high-altitude training or have personal trainers and physiotherapists. Could stem cells be the next unfair advantage?

The issue might be how to detect if an athlete has had stem cell injections for performance enhancement (sports doping) and whether it has any real effect on the long term sustainability of the athelete. Even if the athlete's own stem cells were injected back into the muscles, those muscles may only regenerate to a limited amount with a short space of time. So sports doping with stem cells is probably going to be difficult as it does take months to build up the muscles and the injected cells may have already blended into their new environment making it almost impossible to detect.

HEALING OF SOFT TISSUE

It has already been shown in animal trials that stem cells have been able to regenerate soft tissue such as ligaments, tendons and muscles. Whilst soft tissue has a very healthy rate of repair, som injuries are too great and lead to scarring and ultimately weak fibers that are unable to withstand much further tension.


RESEARCH FROM ITALY & CANADA

Separately, in an article published in The Genome News Network 2003 both Canadian and Italian scientists found that stem cells were able to regenerate damaged muscle to give rise to new muscle fibers. But the interesting work, in my opinion is what they discovered with muscular dystrophy.


EXTRACTED FROM THE ARTICLE: The research could lead to new treatments for muscle-wasting diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, and for restoring muscle strength in elderly people. Athletes may also be interested in the new findings, which lend credence to the “no pain, no gain” approach to strength training and may lead to new strategies for bulking up.

In one study, Giulio Cossu, of the Stem Cell Research Institute in Milan, Italy, and his colleagues restored muscle function to mice with muscular dystrophy. The researchers injected stem cells from the blood vessels of healthy mice into leg arteries of mice with muscular dystrophy. The stem cells, which they call “mesoangioblasts,” accumulated in the diseased muscle within hours and eventually gave rise to healthy muscle tissue.


The Canadian study demonstrated that the muscle's amazing ability to regenerate stems from a particular protein known as Wnt (if you are a molecular biologist, check this out), which is released from damaged muscles and stimulates the stem cells to form new muscles. However, as people age, these signals diminish and the cells lose their ability to regenerate. The understanding of this process could lead to new strategies for increasing muscle strength in both aging and diseases tissues.

One of the Canadian researchers has since started a company by the name of Stempath to discover drugs which can be used to stimulate muscle stem cell production. Those types of drugs used in athletes, could be certainly considered as "sports doping".



Coming full circle again, the younger the stem cells are, the better the chance of regeneration and repair. Whether you fancy yourself as a weekend athlete or a true sports professional, perhaps stem cells may be able to help with your condition. If its your own cells and not drug based, no harm in trying. :)

StemLife has banked stem cells for several keen tennis players and runners. We look forward to more healthy Malaysian athletic stem cell bankers in the near future!