Minute nanoscale whiskers taken from sea creatures hold the key
to creating human muscle tissue, say researchers. University of
Manchester academics Stephen Eichhorn and Julie Gough, working
with doctoral student James Dugan, chemically extracted
cellulose in the form of nanowhiskers from tunicates, known as
sea squirts. “Cellulose is being looked at very closely around
the world because of its unique properties, and because it is a
renewable resource. But this is the first time it has been used
for skeletal muscle tissue engineering applications,” said
Eichhorn. Cellulose is a polysaccharide — a long chain of sugars
joined together — usually found in plants. It is the main
component of paper and certain textiles such as cotton,
according to a Manchester statement. Tunicates grow on rocks and
man-made structures in coastal waters. Nanowhiskers are tens of
thousand of times smaller than muscle cells and are the smallest
physical feature found to cause cell alignment. Nanowhiskers are
already being used for a n