Design, evaluation, and application of engineered skeletal muscle

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Regenerative Medicine
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Significant progress has been made in engineering three-dimensional skeletal muscle tissues over the past two decades.
• These engineered tissues offer potential for disease modeling, pre-clinical drug development, and therapeutic grafts for muscle repair.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review methodologies in skeletal muscle tissue engineering.
• To highlight advancements in generating myogenic cell sources and functional muscle tissues.
• To discuss techniques for evaluating muscle maturation and surgical strategies for integration.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on muscle tissue engineering methodologies.
• Focus on cell sourcing, in vitro tissue formation, and in vivo evaluation techniques.
• Analysis of surgical strategies for disease modeling and implant integration.

Main Results:

• Development of regenerative muscle constructs capable of in vivo survival, vascularization, and maturation.
• Creation of functional human engineered muscles for in vitro therapeutic screening.
• Identification of key techniques for monitoring and evaluating engineered muscle performance.

Conclusions:

• Methodologies for generating myogenic cells and forming functional muscle tissues have advanced significantly.
• In vivo and in vitro evaluation techniques are crucial for assessing engineered muscle performance.
• Promising future methodologies will drive continued progress in skeletal muscle tissue engineering.