Decellularized Fetal Matrix Suppresses Fibrotic Gene Expression and Promotes Myogenesis in a Rat Model of Volumetric Muscle Loss

Abstract

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery • October 2021 portion. A count of centrally located nuclei might be useful in making the distinction between native and regenerated muscle. 3,4 Finally, in their Figure 4, the authors show that most of the proinflammatory and profibrotic genes in the fetal rat and rabbit groups were down-regulated. However, information on RNA quality is not provided, and it is conceivable that this may have varied by specimen and thus affected the results. Therefore, we believe it would also be helpful if the authors could show that the RNA integrity number 5 was comparable in each specimen, and that the expression of myosin heavy chain RNA was also significantly increased in the fetal rat and rabbit groups, in addition to the protein being increased in the tissue.We encourage the authors to consider these additional studies, to clarify the metabolic change during the remodeling phase, the estimated degree of improvement of muscle function, and the quality of the gene expression experiment's specimens. Again, we commend the authors on a thought-provoking study.