Scientists have isolated stem cells from blood vessels (known as myoendothelial cells) which can be differentiated in the laboratory into muscle, bone and cartilage cells and are thus suitable for use as a potential therapy for muscle injuries and diseases including heart attack and muscle dystrophy.

"To make this available as a therapy, we would take a muscle biopsy from a patient with a muscle injury or disease, remove the myoendothelial cells and treat the cells in the lab. The stem cells would then be re-injected into the patient to repair the muscle damage. Because this is an autologous transplant, meaning from the patient to himself, there is not the risk of rejection you would have if you took the stem cells from another source."

In the study published in September issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers report that a thousand myoendothelial cells transplanted into the injured skeletal muscle of immunodeficient mice produced, on average, 89 muscle fibers, compared with nine and five muscle fibers for endothelial and satellite cells, respectively. And in contrast to other stem cell therapies, the myoendothelial cells also showed no tendency to form tumors.

Source: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh