Human muscles have a sexual ability to counteract the harmful effects of chronic inflammation when exercised, a new study suggests.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that inflammation is not nearly as good or bad. When the body is injured, an initial low-level swelling response clears away debris and helps rebuild tension.
“Our engineered muscle platform is modular, meaning we can mix and match different types of cells and components if we want. But in this case, we found that the muscle cells are able to take anti-inflammatory actions on their own, “said researcher Nenad Bursac, a professor at Duke University.
Among many molecules that can cause inflammation, one pro-inflammatory molecule in particular, interferon-gamma, has been linked to different types of muscle spasm and dysfunction.
Although previous research in humans and animals has shown that exercise can help reduce the effects of inflammation in general, it has been difficult to differentiate the potential role of exercise. muscle cells themselves, not to mention how they interact with specific crime molecules, such as interferon- gamma.
To demonstrate that muscles alone are capable of counteracting the destructive powers of gamma interferon, the team turned to an engineered muscle platform that the lab has been developing for nearly a decade.
They initially grew to contract active human skeletal muscle in a Petri dish, and since then the laboratory has been improving its processes by, for example, adding immune cells and stores storage of gas cells with the recipe.
In the current study, the researchers took these fully functional, laboratory-grown muscles, and ingested them with relatively high levels of interferon-gamma for seven days to counteract the effects of chronic inflammatory inflammation. mitigation. As expected, the muscle became smaller and lost much of its strength.
The researchers then applied interferon-gamma again, but this time they also put the muscle through a model exercise regimen by stimulating it with a pair of electrodes.
While they expected the procedure to provide some muscle growth, as seen in their previous studies, they were surprised to find that it almost completely stopped the effects of kidney inflammation.