Advertisement
Science
ChinaScience
No gym needed? Scientists in China develop self-exercising muscle grafts
The team says ‘myografts’ could provide health benefits to those who cannot exercise easily, such as bedridden people
3-MIN READ3-MIN
Listen
Victoria Bela
Published: 8:53pm, 26 Aug 2026
Updated: 9:09pm, 26 Aug 2026
Scientists in China have created a self-exercising muscle graft that might allow bedridden people to gain the benefits of working out without any physical exertion
With just an injection of muscle cells below the skin, the cells self-assembled into muscle grafts, which not only improved whole-body muscle mass in mice but also led to improvements in bone density, endurance, liver function and cognitive health
The “myografts” could provide the health benefits of exercise to patients with age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis, and future applications could even extend to those who just want to build muscle without hitting the gym.
“While the complete safety and [pharmacological] profile of autologous myografts remains to be established in human trials, our mouse preclinical studies constitute a noteworthy first step in this direction,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Ageing on Wednesday
“In a sense, we’re distilling the best part of exercise out … and avoiding all the negative effects of exercise, whether it’s the stress on the heart or the stress on your joints,” said study author Ng Shyh-Chang, a professor and principal investigator at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology
Moreover, the team found that the myografts could be used as a living biofactory to produce targeted therapeutic proteins within the body, including compounds such as GLP-1, which is used to manage diabetes and as a weight-loss tool.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
0.8x
0.9x
1.0x
1.1x
1.2x
1.5x
1.75x
00:00
00:00
1.00x
