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Engineers Implant Vascularized 3D Muscles

Posted by timothy on from the one-step-toward-vat-meat dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A big hurdle to creating "replacement parts" for the human body is the lack of an internal, nourishing blood system in engineered tissues. Using a stem cell "cocktail," researchers say they've now overcome that, and successfully implanted engineered muscles in lab animals. Next stop, genuine implantable pecs?"

7 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Waiting isn't too hard... by mister_llah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, it'll be nice to be able to graft some muscles on and all that, but I'll do what I do with software releases... I will wait until awhile after the technology is released, so that all the misfortunes occur to the impatiently eager... and then when the technology will not have a chance of leaving me a parapalegic or something, then I'll go for it...

    === ... but this is fun stuff, especially considering the article on cloned brain cells... perhaps this means we are nearing cloned stem cells? ... and then the moral ambiguity of stem cell research is only in cloning issues, one step closer to pleasing everybody!

    Yee haw!

    --
    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
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  2. Downsides... by RootsLINUX · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I'm even *less* motivated to exercise than before, which I thought was impossible. Maybe I could get really strong leg muscles implanted (like those of a cheetah) and then I wouldn't need to be stuck in traffic for 30-60 minutes a day. I'd just run to work at 60+ MPH!!! Abusing technology is what American's do best after all.... >_>

    --
    Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
    1. Re:Downsides... by drightler · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Humans are way more energy efficient than cars. Assuming a human could run at 60mph, and assuming gasoline could be comsumed rather than food:

      1 gallon of gasoline contains 33000 kCal (calories).
      A human burns 0.653 kCal (calories) per mile per pound of body weight.
      Assume a 200 pound man.

      200 * .653 * 60 = 7836 kCal (calories). This is about 23.75% of a gallon. About 252.68 miles/gallon.

      --

      blah blah blah....
      drightler@technicalogic.com
    2. Re:Downsides... by dmaduram · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just as a fyi, if you're interested in swapping muscles with a different species, you'd probably be better off using the rat IIb fast-twitch myosin muscle filament, instead of the cheetah.

      There was a great article about gene therapy & interspecies muscle filament switching a few years ago in Scientific American, and they noted that switching muscles with another species could be problematic under duress, because the resultant strain on the quadriceps could physically rip out the hamstring, patella tendon, and tibia bone, eventually causing the quadriceps to shoot up the femur.

      Muscle, Genes and Athletic Performance. Andersen, Jesper L.; Schjerling, Peter; Saltin, Bengt. Scientific American, Sep2000, Vol. 283 Issue 3, p48
  3. Re:Schwarzenegger upgrade module by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OK, normally NSFW tags are nice, but:

    • You're in a discussion about breast implants.
    • The link is to a website called siliconeholocaust.com, that's
      silicone: The things breast implants are made out of. holocaust: Something horrible. .com: A website.
    • The document linked is photos1a.html. There might just be picutures there.

    Given these facts, it would be a pretty good bet that you shouldn't click the link if you're at work, but then again I could see how you would think it's the Cliff Notes for the novelized version of Dawson's Creek.

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  4. To the wealthy go the spoils by sithsasquatch · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure it will take a while, but when it is a commercially viable procedure, this stuff will probably cost insane amounts of money.

    This leads to an obvious problem: If the rich and powerful are also physically stronger than us, how are we gonna overthrow them?
    Seriously, muscles harnessed for long toil under the blazing sun won't be able to compete with these cyborg implants!

    We must act now, before the muscles are implanted, and before the damn upper class becomes impervious to our insurrection. To arms, comrades!

    Viva la revolucion!

    --
    With so many ppl on /., how am I supposed to come up with a unique sig?
  5. Growable meat by AmicoToni · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Growing muscle tissue on demand actually means growing meat. Which can be edible meat.

    Is the science-fiction scenario of growing meat without farming closer? It sure would represent a whole new source of high-quality, "ethically correct" proteins.

    But would you eat such a thing?