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Assessing Functional Metrics of Skeletal Muscle Health in Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissues
Published on: February 18, 2021
Optimizing the structure and contractility of engineered skeletal muscle thin films
1Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 700 Technology Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA.
Acta Biomaterialia
|May 2, 2013
Summary
Researchers optimized micropatterned fibronectin lines to engineer skeletal muscle thin films. Specific line dimensions (100μm width, 20μm spacing) maximized myoblast differentiation and contractile function in engineered muscle tissue.
Area of Science:
- Biomaterials Engineering
- Tissue Engineering
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Skeletal muscle tissue engineering aims to create functional muscle constructs.
- Controlling cellular alignment and differentiation is crucial for engineered muscle function.
- Micropatterning offers a method to guide cell behavior and tissue organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an experimental system for engineering skeletal muscle thin films.
- To investigate how fibronectin micropattern dimensions influence myoblast differentiation and alignment.
- To quantify the contractility of engineered skeletal muscle.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the C2C12 cell line on micropatterned fibronectin substrates.
- Varied fibronectin line width and spacing to optimize tissue architecture.
- Employed image analysis and a muscular thin film contractility assay.
Main Results:
- Identified optimal fibronectin line width (100μm) and spacing (20μm) for anisotropic muscle formation.
- Engineered muscle exhibited consistent contractile properties at the millimeter scale.
- Achieved a normalized peak twitch stress of 9.4±4.6kPa at 1Hz stimulation, with a positive force-frequency relationship and tetanus.
Conclusions:
- Micropatterning effectively controls skeletal muscle differentiation and tissue architecture.
- The muscular thin film contractility assay is valuable for structure-function relationship studies.
- The developed platform can explore microenvironmental influences on skeletal muscle myogenesis and contractility.
