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Myoblast Transfer Therapy (MTT) is the technology developed
by Dr. Peter Law, PhD, Chairman & CEO of Cell Transplants
International LLC (CTI). This Memphis, Tennessee based research/treatment
center is at the forefront of groundbreaking experimental
medical treatments that have preliminary proven safe in overcoming
the devastating effects of Muscular Dystrophy, and now heart
disease.
By definition, a myoblast is an
immature muscle cell, a muscle precursor which is essential
for normal muscle repair. A mature muscle cell is actually
a very thin fiber; a single muscle cell can be more than an
inch long, and instead of containing one nucleus like most
other cells, it can contain as many as 500. When a muscle
is injured, a reservoir of satellite cells, small immature
cells that usually nestle inside each fiber's outer sheath
are the key to muscle repair and regeneration.
To begin this repair process, the
satellite cells leave the muscle fiber, divide repeatedly,
and flatten into spindle-shaped forms - myoblasts. These myoblasts
then repair the injured cell by fusing with it, adding their
healthy nuclei to other nuclei previously present inside the
muscle cell. The myoblasts also form entirely new muscle cells
by fusing with each other. Dr. Law reasoned that these healthy
myoblasts could be used to rescue damaged muscle by fusing
with the defective cells. In this way, their healthy nuclei
can provide the normal genes which are lacking in the genetically
defective muscle cells. These combination fibers, which Dr.
Law calls "mosaics" exhibit normal function.
One problem that Dr. Law has overcome
was to develop a way to remove the unwanted cells that might
likely trigger the immune system to recognize the transplanted
cells as foreign, thus destroying them before they got to
work. "We had to design and perfect a culture medium to mass-produce
myoblasts and weed out other cells" Dr. Law explains. "And
it was equally important not to switch on oncogenes in the
myoblasts and grow tumor cells, which is always a risk when
mass-culturing cells in the lab."
At this time, the MTT procedure has been successfully
used in experimentally treating Muscular Dystrophy, and is
currently being studied as a treatment for heart failure.
Dr. Law holds world patents for the growth procedure for myoblasts,
as well as for the potential treatments.
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