Scientists have for the first time grown functional, mature skeletal muscle in a dish and successfully grafted it into the leg of a live mouse.

Although an early step in the fledgling field of lab-grown tissue, the breakthrough could eventually lead to the development of bespoke human treatments for muscle disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, making this an important step for medical science.

Other lab-grown muscles have previously been developed, such as one by Duke University, but this is the first time the muscle produced is truly functional and suitable for grafting.

The muscle, which was developed by a team of scientists from Italy, Israel and the UK, was grown in a tissue culture dish using cells known as mesoangioblasts – the precursor to regular muscle cells.

These were grown in a support matrix known as a hydrogel, which is designed to support and guide tissue growth.

The cells were genetically modified to produce a protein growth factor that encourages the development of blood vessels and nerves, a factor that was key to the muscle’s successful growth.

Once the muscle fibres were grown, they were grafted onto existing muscle under the mouse’s skin and successfully developed into a fully functional, complete muscle within three weeks.

The scientists also found that replacing damaged muscle with the lab-grown graft produced a functional muscle very similar to a normal, healthy muscle.

“The morphology and the structural organisation of the artificial organ are extremely similar to if not indistinguishable from a natural skeletal muscle,” said study co-lead author Cesare Gargioli of the University of Rome.

The research, which was published today in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, is extremely promising for suffers of muscle disorders.

If the work is able to make the leap from mice to humans, it could be used to generate replacement muscles from each patient’s own cells, effectively reversing the damage caused by devastating conditions such as muscular dystrophy.

However, the researchers have much to do before this is possible, and will be working to replicate the work with a number of larger animals before human research is even considered.

“While we are encouraged by the success of our work in growing a complete intact and functional mouse leg muscle we emphasize that a mouse muscle is very small and scaling up the process for patients may require significant additional work,” explained study co-author and EMBO Member Giulio Cossu.