Biomimetic poypeptides: a new strategy for muscle tissue regeneration

Despite recent progress in regenerative medicine, functional muscle tissue restoration still represent a challenge, being unable to self- restore significant tissue loss, as consequence of trauma, congenital defects, tumor ablation or denervation. The creation of new muscle through tissue engineering represents an alternative for the replacement of tissue after severe damage. Among the many materials available, those of natural origin are preferable for their biocompatibility and their capacity to resemble the native physiologic environment of cells. A new opportunity is represented by the adoption of a biomimetic approach that allows to realize compounds that are in –between natural and synthetic origin with limited variability and controlled features. Human elastin-like polypeptides that have been designed and produced in our laboratory represent an innovative and promising tool to be exploited in muscle tissue engineering.