Tissue engineering of skeletal muscle tissue interfaces: neuromuscular junction and musculotendinous junction
This project entitled “In Vitro model for tissue engineering of Diaphragm,” is funded (2023-2025) by DFG and is fpcused on developing an in vitro model of muscle-tendon junction specifically in diaphragm using various materials and processing techniques.
Recently, we applied collagen, the main component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in natural tissues, as a based material to build a muscle-tendon junction. Collagen and its derivates have been used in tissue engineering and biofabrication of anisotropic tissues like muscles and tendons. In our studies, we showed the production of the collagen fibers using wet spinning techniques without post crosslinking and their processing into hierarchical assemblies using textile-engineering techniques. The complex 3D- assemblies were used first as substrates for the formation of muscle microtissue with long, aligned, and contractile myofibers. In the long-term and co-culture of fibroblasts and skeletal muscle cells, we showed the successful formation of the skeletal muscle-tendon interface model.
Furthermore, we showed the mature myofibers formed on microfabricated fibers composed of gelatin methacrylated (GelMA), could express the acetylcholine receptors after biochemical stimulation with Agrin. The combination of the topography and Agrin treatment resulted in a strong contraction of the myofibers after electrical stimulation.
Related papers:
- K. Koeck#, S. Salehi#, M. Humenik, T. Scheibel, Processing of Continuous Non-Crosslinked Collagen Fibers for Microtissue Formation at the Tendon-Muscle Interface. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2112238. (#co-first author)
- M. Ebrahimi, S. Ostrovidov, S. Salehi, S. Bok Kim, H. Bae, A. Khademhosseini, Enhanced Skeletal Muscle Formation on Microfluidic Spun Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA) Fibers Using Surface Patterning and Agrin Treatment, J Tissue Eng. Regen. Med. 2018. 12(11), 2151-2163. (Top downloaded paper of J Tissue Eng. Regen. Med 2018-2019)
- S. Salehi, Kim Koeck, and Thomas Scheibel, Spider silk for tissue engineering applications, Molecules 2020, 25(3), 737.