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Engineering Skeletal Muscle Tissues from Murine Myoblast Progenitor Cells and Application of Electrical Stimulation
Published on: March 19, 2013
Improved tissue culture conditions for engineered skeletal muscle sheets
Sara Hinds1, Natalia Tyhovych, Clint Sistrunk
1Department of Basic Sciences, New York University, 345 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010, USA. sh2620@nyu.edu
Thescientificworldjournal
|March 28, 2013
Summary
Fibroblast-conditioned media significantly enhances in vitro myogenesis by increasing myofiber density and promoting maturation of engineered muscle tissue. This finding advances skeletal muscle regeneration research.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Engineered muscle's clinical use is limited by poor in vitro muscle precursor cell fusion and maturation.
- Developing methods to improve in vitro myogenesis is crucial for advancing skeletal muscle tissue engineering.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of fibroblast co-culture and fibroblast-conditioned media (fCM) on in vitro myogenesis using isotropic skeletal muscle sheets.
- To determine how varying fibroblast ratios influence myogenesis in engineered muscle constructs.
Main Methods:
- Skeletal muscle sheets were created by seeding myoblasts and fibroblasts on a biomimetic substrate.
- Tissues were cultured in control media or fibroblast-conditioned media (fCM).
- Two cell types were used: C2C12/NOR-10 cell lines and primary neonatal rat skeletal muscle cells (nSKM).
Main Results:
- Fibroblast-conditioned media (fCM) significantly increased myofiber density by 3.12-fold at day 1 in C2C12/Nor-10 muscle sheets.
- Low fibroblast concentrations (0-10%) with fCM resulted in higher myofiber density (4.8 myofibers/field) compared to high concentrations (50%) in control media (1.0 myofiber/field) by day 6.
- fCM promoted the development of longer, thicker myofibers with a mature phenotype.
Conclusions:
- Fibroblast-conditioned media enhances in vitro myogenesis, improving myofiber formation and maturation in engineered skeletal muscle.
- Optimizing fibroblast presence and utilizing fCM are promising strategies for improving engineered muscle tissue for clinical applications.

