Researchers Grow the World’s First-Ever Working Human Muscle With Stem Cells

The world’s first ever, biomedical engineered muscle tissue was created from stem cells, which researchers believe this could open the door to a slew of advanced treatment opportunities.

Engineers from Duke University created the fully functioning human skeletal muscle made from pluripotent stem cells, from adult non-muscle tissues (skin and blood). The research team created muscle fibers that reacted to stimuli, like an electric shock (that are similar to neuronal signals), similar to how natural muscle tissue work. When the team implanted the stem-cell grown tissue into adult mice, they found that it functioned for three weeks after.

“It’s taken years of trial and error, making educated guesses and taking baby steps to finally produce functioning human muscle from pluripotent stem cells,” said Lingjun Rao, a postdoctoral researcher and author of the study. “What made the difference are our unique cell culture conditions and 3-D matrix, which allowed cells to grow and develop much faster and longer than the 2-D culture approaches that are more typically used.”

However, the stem cell-derived muscle is not as strong as native muscle, but researchers believe they can use the stem cell-derived tissue for regenerative and genetic therapies.