| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard-MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kbaar{at}umich.edu.
The transition of a muscle cell from a differentiated myotube into an adult myofiber is largely unstudied. This is primarily due to the difficulty of isolating specific developmental stimuli in vivo and the inability to maintain viable myotubes in culture for sufficient lengths of time. To address these limitations, a novel method for rapidly generating 3-dimensional (3D) engineered muscles using fibrin gel casting has been developed. Myoblasts were seeded and differentiated on top of a fibrin gel. Cell mediated contraction of the gel around artificial anchors placed 12mm apart culminates ten days after plating in a tubular structure of small myotubes (10 µm diameter) surrounded by a fibrin gel matrix. These tissues can be connected to a force transducer and electrically stimulated between parallel platinum electrodes to monitor physiological function. Three weeks after plating, the 3D engineered muscle generated a maximum twitch force of 329±26 µN and a maximal tetanic force of 806±55 µN. The engineered muscles demonstrated normal physiological function including length-tension and force-frequency relationships. Treatment with IGF-I resulted in a 50% increase in force production demonstrating that these muscles responded to hormonal interventions. While the force production was maximal at three weeks, constructs can be maintained in culture for up to 6 weeks with no intervention. We conclude that fibrin-based gels provide a novel method to engineer 3D functional muscle tissue and that these tissues may be used to model the development of skeletal muscle in vitro.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  British Orthodontic Society, UTG session abstracts J. Orthod., March 1, 2008; 35(1): 52 - 56. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y.-C. Huang, R. G. Dennis, and K. Baar Cultured slow vs. fast skeletal muscle cells differ in physiology and responsiveness to stimulation Am J Physiol Cell Physiol, July 1, 2006; 291(1): C11 - C17. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. Baar New dimensions in tissue engineering: possible models for human physiology Exp Physiol, November 1, 2005; 90(6): 799 - 806. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. Hecker, K. Baar, R. G. Dennis, and K. N. Bitar Development of a three-dimensional physiological model of the internal anal sphincter bioengineered in vitro from isolated smooth muscle cells Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol, August 1, 2005; 289(2): G188 - G196. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| Visit Other APS Journals Online |
