User:Caston/BlogEntry: 2011 July 13 14:11:27 UTC

Tissue Engineering and Scaffolding to Help Regenerate Leg Muscle
My first blog post in a several weeks is actually a reblog. I will try to build on it and expand the coverage. BW has written an interesting blog post.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/06/pig-bladder-powder-and-biological.html

The blog post was originally after an article on the website of the Australian news paper:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/radical-therapy-sees-injured-us-soldier-regrow-muscle/story-e6frg8y6-1226078116604

The article is saying that the large number of returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with major injury has prompted US government to spend 70 million on regenerative medicine. This is really nothing when you consider the cost of the war in Iraq has been over the years. http://costofwar.com/en/

The research was carried out by the McGowan institute for Regenerative medicine and here is another article about it in Popular Science magazine: McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine - Muscle Tissue Regeneration with the Use of Biologic Scaffolds for Patients Suffering from Massive Loss of Skeletal Muscle Tissue http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/tissue-engineers-regenerate-muscle-cells-saving-afghanistan-veteran%E2%80%99s-leg

They inserted an Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM) and were able to regenerate much of is leg muscle by seeding his remaining leg muscle with proteins and growth factors. They were also apparently able to regenerate skeletal muscle which is usually unheard of. This just goes to show what could be achieved if only 1% of the money spent on war was spent on regenerative medicine.

Possible new role of cannabinoid receptors discovered
Kurzweil AI has blogged about a new possible function of the canabinoid receptor CB1 that appears to be neuroprotective (at least in mice) According to wikipedia though CB2 seems quite destructive.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/cannabinoid-receptors-protect-against-aging

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid_receptor