Stimulating Muscle Repair with Nanostimulators

MedTech Outlook | Wednesday, July 22, 2020

A damaged tissue can now revive itself to heal quicker and better. The inception of Nanostimulators can make it easy to enhance the process of treating ischemia and repair tissue damages.

FREMONT, CA: With every step forward in research, medical science is bringing in innovations that are easing medical treatments drastically. A part of regenerative medicine deals with rejuvenating patient's damaged muscles by injecting their stem cells to reduce oxygen deficiency. However, this procedure has certain shortcomings concerning the longevity of the stem cells. Usually, for treating ischemia, medical experts inject the stem cells that release certain substances, which aid in building new blood vessels and soothe the local inflammation.

But the effect of these cells is not long-lasting as they stop secreting the paracrine factors that help in angiogenesis.

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has promoted the effectivity of nanostimulators, for better regeneration of tissues. Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a natural molecule that our body generates. This molecule can boost the stem cells to release more of the growth factors. When this TNF alpha is bound to the stem cells, they produce the nanostimulators. These nanoparticles tethered to TNF-alpha enhance the functionality of TNF-alpha in recovery from injuries or dead tissues.

In the process of regenerating tissues more effectively, stem cells are not just vital for replacing the lost tissues but to release paracrine factors and cytokines that could effectively help in the regeneration. The nanostimulators secrete these factors for a longer time. In the case of cell transplantation into diseased or injured tissues, these can be very beneficial.

The researchers have experimented with the nanostimulators on mice with imposed ischemia on one of their hind limbs. It showed positive results with increased oxygen levels and blood flow, enabling them to move better than otherwise.

According to medical researchers, the method of using nanostimulators for tissue revival is better than the procedures involving chemical preconditioning. Treatments with chemical preconditioning often restrict the effectivity of the stem cells and require a longer time for cell culture. They are hopeful towards extracting the stem cells from the adipose tissue of the patients, fuse the nanostimulators in them, and inject them to the patients. Therefore, the process of nanostimulators can harvest longer and more effective results on the patients. Peripheral artery diseases are painful and impact the oxygen-carrying capacity for long. Though this does not have persistent treatment, studies like this help to relieve a significant amount of pain and also illustrate the maximum capabilities of the stem cells. Thus, the nanostimulators stimulate the stem cells to improve their natural functioning and heal tissue injuries better.