Healing Accelerator
New hydrogel restores muscles twice as fast after injuries
Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"
A team from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the CIBER Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Center (CIBER-BBN) has developed and tested at the preclinical level a new biomaterial for the treatment and recovery of muscle tissue after injuries. It is a boron-saturated alginate hydrogel that can be injected subcutaneously. According to tests conducted on animal models, it is able to repair damaged muscle very quickly – twice as fast as it would recover itself. The hydrogel can also be used for the prevention and treatment of muscular atrophy associated with aging, the UPV press service reports.
The results of the study are published in the journal Materials Science & Engineering C (Ciriza et al., Borax-loaded injectable alginate hydrogels promote muscle regeneration in vivo after an injury).
The new hydrogel contains borax (sodium tetraborate), which is released into the body. When released, it stimulates integrins – proteins that are present in all cells of the body and play a fundamental role in the adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix, which contributes to the proper formation of tissues.
According to the results of the study, simultaneous stimulation of integrins binding fibronectin (extracellular matrix glycoprotein) and the boron ion transporter (NaBC1) significantly improves muscle regeneration at the anatomical level. This is because it causes more adhesions and a larger size in undifferentiated muscle cells that are involved in muscle regeneration after injury, which ultimately contributes to the formation of differentiated muscle tubes necessary for the proper creation of new muscle fibers.
Scientists conducted tests on mice that were poisoned with cardiotoxin (cobra snake venom). Activation of NaBC1 with a hydrogel, as tests have shown, accelerated the process of muscle regeneration. The researchers confirmed this by adding boron to damaged muscle cells, their adhesion level increased – they began to stick together faster and more reliably, allowing the muscles to recover in a shorter period of time.
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