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In This Issue:
Indranil Sinha, MD
Indranil Sinha
What is your research project about?
My project focuses on using the body's own stem cells to help muscles heal following traumatic injuries. When muscles are injured, the body utilizes muscle stem cells to regenerate new muscle in the damaged area. But there are only a limited number of stem cells in any given muscle.
If the injury is large and the number of stem cells is depleted, the body heals muscle with non-functional scar tissue instead. In this case, patients lose strength and maybe even the ability to walk. Within the past year, major breakthroughs in muscle stem cell research have allowed us to isolate muscle stem cells from a small biopsy and help them grow quickly in a laboratory setting. These cells can then be injected back into healing muscle to maintain muscle strength and function. For patients with lower extremity injuries, we can potentially take a small muscle biopsy from the shoulder, isolate and grow the muscle stem cells and inject them back into the area that's injured. We expect this to help patients preserve strength, function and the ability to walk without the aid of prosthetic devices.
What is a unique aspect of your research project?
This project represents an entirely new way to treat patients with lower extremity trauma. Thanks to a collaborative effort with Amy Wagers, PhD, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, we can now apply groundbreaking research on stem cell behavior to clinical problems. Our lab was the first to isolate human skeletal muscle stem cells and to identify compounds to help these cells grow faster in culture. The next steps are to refine the process and evaluate how well these cells help patients when injected back into healing muscle. Since they are the patient's own cells, there is no need for immunosuppression and no concern for rejection.
How will your research project benefit future patients who suffer from trauma-related injuries?
Based on research over the past few years, the most common injury of the lower extremity is a combined loss of bone, skin, blood vessels and muscle. Medical substitutes for skin and bone are available and work well. Blood vessels can be repaired with commonly practiced surgical techniques. However, there is no current way to medically or surgically correct poor muscle healing. Our research offers hope for helping these patients heal better and become stronger. Importantly, the technique being developed in this study isn't restricted to lower extremity trauma. Trauma anywhere on the body with subsequent muscle loss can potentially be treated by this method.
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