Factoid:
Scientists believe that 'artificial muscles' made of electroactive polymers will soon make robots far more dexterous and versatile, and could also offer the gift of mobility to paralyzed humans.
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New Research Promises Bone, Muscle Replacement
New research shows that stem cells from adult bone marrow can be directed to grow into new bone and muscle tissue that can replace similar tissue lost to disease or accident.
Start Date: 4/10/99
Human bones, cartilage, tendons and muscles lost due to accidents or illness such as cancer may one day be replaced by new parts grown from the patient's own cells. That's the implication of new research reported in the April 2, 1999 edition of the journal Science.
Researchers at Osiris Therapeutics, led by Dr. Mark F. Pittenger, extracted a single mesenchymal stem cell from adult bone marrow and then grew it into a colony of more than a million cells that could be directed to produce either bone, cartilage or fat.
Pittenger's team found that, by adding certain proteins to the culture of growing cells, they could direct the growth into one of several different "lineages," some for bone, others for cartilage. "We've arrived at conditions that allow us a very strong degree of control," said Pittenger. "When we direct these cells to the (cartilage) lineage, almost all of the cells grow to that lineage."
Other research is underway to direct similar stem cells to produce muscle. Among other things, it may one day be possible, some researchers say, to inject new muscle tissue into a human heart to replace scar tissue left by a heart attack.
The new findings point to therapies that do not rely upon so-called pluripotent stem cells which are found only in embryos. Stem cells for bone, cartilage and muscle are found in adult tissue. However, researchers currently believe that only pluripotent stem cells can be directed to produce certain critical organs of the body.
Stem cell research involving human embryos is highly controversial and many legislators want to block it entirely.
Meanwhile, however, the Osiris findings suggest that bone and muscle replacement in humans may be only a few years away. Already, bone derived from stem cell culture has successfully replaced missing bone in dogs. Tests on human subjects could begin within three years, Pittenger said.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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