Mechanical stimulation and incorporation of tissue-specific endothelial cells for tissue engineering of human skeletal muscle

In our lab, we create bio-artificial muscles (BAMs) made up of human aligned myofibers in an extracellular matrix starting from the adult stem cells present in skeletal muscle. Despite advances in the field, its applications are still hampered by the limited mechanical strength, size and stage of maturation of the BAMs. This justifies the need for mechanically stronger tissue-engineered muscle. The theme of this project is focused on advancing BAMs through hypertrophy. This is the process by which muscles grow and become stronger through exercise. We aim to mimick this exercise by applying mechanical stimulation to BAMs in culture. This is hypothesized to not only enhance fiber hypertophy but also blood vessel formation. In parallel, we will integrate elastomeric scaffolds in our model to serve as a temporary connective tissue scaffold for developing muscle. This is hypothesized to provide support to the developing muscle while autologous extracellular matrix develops.