MADRID, 6 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Super-fast muscles, able to move at speeds like those of the comic book superhero The Flash, have been identified for the first time on legs in the natural worldspecifically in mice.
Scientists from the Institute of Zoology and the Beijing Institute of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences believe that this finding opens the prospect of future research that could breaking physical speed limits of the normal movements of human arms and legs.
Traditionally, super-fast muscles have only been found in some obscure parts of animal anatomy, like the wings of hummingbirds, the tail of rattlesnakes and the larynx of bats. While fast-twitch muscles—those used by athletes for activities like sprinting—are widespread in mammalian limbs, super-fast muscles have only been identified in one part of human and mammalian anatomy until now: the extraocular muscles that control rapid eye movement.
“We have accomplished this feat by optimizing a new technology called single cell metabolomics imaging,” he says. it’s a statement Professor Ng Shyh Chang, lead author of the study.
The researchers used this new technology to study cells in frozen sections of mouse leg muscles. They discovered that some of these cells contained metabolic signatures, that is, groups of biochemical substances produced during cell metabolism, which are normally only found in super fast muscles.
The superfast mouse leg cells, which displayed a large number of metabolites and genes associated with exercise training, also contained metabolic signatures similar to those of oxidative muscles, that is, the fatigue-resistant muscles that are used for endurance exercises like marathons.
The scientists hypothesized that, with repeated neural stimulation, mouse paws had begun to form small amounts of superfast muscles similar to those that control human eye movements.
Armed with these insights, scientists could unlock a wide range of therapeutic interventions that push the physical limits of what human limbs can achieve.
The research is published in the journal Science Advances.