INJECTIONS of a natural “SOS” chemical have increased the blood supply to damaged muscle in rats.
Damaged mammalian cells produce sialyl Lewisx, a sugar that summons stem cells from the bone marrow in order to build extra blood vessels and feed the tissue. When at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Ontario, Canada, injected extra sialyl Lewisx into rats with damaged hind limbs, the limbs grew four times as many blood vessels and received twice as much blood flow compared to controls (FASEB Journal, ).
He now wants to find out whether this…
