Bioengineered constructs combined with exercise enhance stem cell-mediated treatment of volumetric muscle loss

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is associated with loss of skeletal muscle function, and current treatments show limited efficacy. Here we show that bioconstructs suffused with genetically-labelled muscle stem cells (MuSCs) and other muscle resident cells (MRCs) are effective to treat VML injuries in mice. Imaging of bioconstructs implanted in damaged muscles indicates MuSCs survival and growth, and ex vivo analyses show force restoration of treated muscles. Histological analysis highlights myofibre formation, neovascularisation, but insufficient innervation. Both innervation and in vivo force production are enhanced when implantation of bioconstructs is followed by an exercise regimen. Significant improvements are also observed when bioconstructs are used to treat chronic VML injury models. Finally, we demonstrate that bioconstructs made with human MuSCs and MRCs can generate functional muscle tissue in our VML model. These data suggest that stem cell-based therapies aimed to engineer tissue in vivo may be effective to treat acute and chronic VML

Self assessments of participants on enterprise training courses

This paper discusses research which was stimulated by the controversial question of the educability of entrepreneurial characteristics and the economic value of enterprise training. The research focuses on participants on enterprise training courses within the Irish Republic which aim to help people to set up and run businesses. An attempt was made to develop a technique, that is an adapted Osgood's Sematic Differential Technique, for use in the exploration of participants’ perceptions of entrepreneurial characteristics. This technique could represent a useful assessment technique for appraising participants’ attitudes to themselves as entrepreneurs and any changes over the duration of a training course in participants’ identification with entrepreneurial characteristic. Although, this technique would require self assessments, it could be used to establish the conditions for the development of entrepreneurial characteristics and explore questions of whether entrepreneurial characteristics may be developed. Despite methodological limitations, the reported study lends support to the thesis that many entrepreneurial characteristics may be developed over the duration of enterprise training courses in the view of participants