Regenerative strategy for volumetric muscle loss and functional recovery

The main goal of the project is to develop a therapeutic strategy for the regeneration of muscle volume and recovery of function after traumatic volumetric muscle loss.

Year 1 Progress Report:

Our research focuses on developing a therapy for regenerating muscles. Typically, large masses of muscles are lost from traumatic injuries or surgical resections to treat cancer. Muscles do heal to a certain extent, but mostly result in non-functional scar tissue formation. Loss of muscle translates to loss of strength and function to perform normal activities of daily living. We are exploring the use of a product derived from human blood, which contains extracellular vesicles that have been demonstrated to have regenerative benefits. With these extracellular vesicles, they contain intercellular messengers that stimulate tissue repair and regeneration. Preliminary data has been promising in showing the product’s effect in recovering muscle function. We are in the process of further investigation to examine the changes on a microscopic level, to better understand the benefit of this product. We are currently up-to-speed with our first year goals as we were able to finish all animal work. In the second year, our focus will be on processing and analyzing the collected specimens, followed by compiling experimental reports to share our findings with the scientific community.