May 26, 2023
Aichi Medical University
Keio University School of Medicine
Nagoya University Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University
A research group from Aichi Medical University—led by Professor Yohei Okada, Assistant Professor Takuji Ito, and doctoral student Muhammad Irfanur Rashid of the Neuro-iPS Cell Research Division at the Institute for Medical Science of Aging and the Department of Internal Medicine (Neurology) at the School of Medicine—has developed a simple and highly efficient method for inducing skeletal muscle differentiation from iPS cells through joint research with the Keio University School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Nagoya University, and the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University. Using this method, the group successfully induced skeletal muscle from iPS cells derived from patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), recapitulating parts of the disease pathology. They also found that it is possible to construct functional three-dimensional skeletal muscles that exhibit contraction in response to electrical stimulation. This research is expected to facilitate the creation of muscle disease models and lead to the development of future therapies. The results of this research were published online in the British scientific journal "Scientific Reports" on May 25, 2023.
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