ENHANCED SKELETAL MUSCLE HEALING AND REGENERATION BY RAT SKELETAL MUSCLE EXTRACT

One of the most challenging problems in muscular skeletal trauma is the limited capacity of regeneration of the damaged skeletal muscle fibers after injury and the inevitable replacement by fast growing fibrous tissue compromising function. To date, there is no effective therapeutic measure available in clinical practice. In the present study, red skeletal muscle aqueous extract has been prepared from female adult rats. This muscle extract could strikingly trigger the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts whose progeny subsequently fuse to preexisting partially damaged muscle fibers to repair the damaged muscle fibers or to form new myotubes to replace the completely damaged muscle fibers during the process of muscle healing and regeneration in vivo. The active myogenic components are probably polypeptides since trypsin or heat treatment could abolish their activity in myogenesis.