The characterization of decellularized human skeletal muscle as a blueprint for mimetic scaffolds

The use of decellularized skeletal muscle (DSM) as a cell substrate and scaffold for the repair of volumetric muscle loss injuries has shown therapeutic promise. The performance of DSM materials motivated our interest in exploring the chemical and physical properties of this promising material. We suggest that these properties could serve as a blueprint for the development of next generation engineered materials with DSM mimetic properties. In this study, whole human lower limb rectus femoris (n = 10) and upper limb supraspinatus muscle samples (n = 10) were collected from both male and female tissue donors. Skeletal muscle samples were decellularized and nine property values, capturing key compositional, architectural, and mechanical properties, were measured and statistically analyzed. Mean values for each property were determined across muscle types and sexes. Additionally, the influence of muscle type (upper vs lower limb) and donor sex (male vs female) on each of the DSM material properties was examined. The data suggests that DSM materials prepared from lower limb rectus femoris samples have an increased modulus and contain a higher collagen content then upper limb supraspinatus muscles. Specifically, lower limb rectus femoris DSM material modulus and collagen content was approximately twice that of lower limb supraspinatus DSM samples. While muscle type did show some influence on material properties, we did not find significant trends related to sex. The material properties reported herein may be used as a blueprint for the data-driven design of next generation engineered scaffolds with muscle mimetic properties, as well as inputs for computational and physical models of skeletal muscle.