Muscle repair the focus of $437,248 grant

Studying how to regenerate damaged muscles will be the focus of a three-year, $437,248 National Institutes of Health grant to a biomedical engineering researcher at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the university announced Tuesday.

Jeffrey Wolchok, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will design and test muscle-mimicking biomaterials that may spark regeneration when healing doesn’t take place on its own after severe injuries.

Such injuries affect not just tissue cells, but also extracellular components critical to the healing process for muscles attached to the skeleton.

The engineered biomaterials might be injected into the damaged tissue, delivering molecules that spark the regeneration process.

To make the biomaterials, Wolchok grows cells on a porous foam that can be dissolved in a solvent. Erasing the foam leaves behind extracellular materials secreted into the foam’s pores.

The materials might be used to help repair rotator cuff shoulder injuries. One in three surgeries fail because of tissue degeneration, and “even a modest reduction to the failure rate could eliminate tens of thousands of repeat procedures,” Wolchok said in a statement.

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