Development of a simple and versatile in vitro method for production, stimulation, and analysis of bioengineered muscle

PLoS One. 2022 Aug 11;17(8):e0272610. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272610. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

In recent years, 3D in vitro modeling of human skeletal muscle has emerged as a subject of increasing interest, due to its applicability in basic studies or screening platforms. These models strive to recapitulate key features of muscle architecture and function, such as cell alignment, maturation, and contractility in response to different stimuli. To this end, it is required to culture cells in biomimetic hydrogels suspended between two anchors. Currently available protocols are often complex to produce, have a high rate of breakage, or are not adapted to imaging and stimulation. Therefore, we sought to develop a simplified and reliable protocol, which still enabled versatility in the study of muscle function. In our method, we have used human immortalized myoblasts cultured in a hydrogel composed of MatrigelTM and fibrinogen, to create muscle strips suspended between two VELCROTM anchors. The resulting muscle constructs show a differentiated phenotype and contractile activity in response to electrical, chemical and optical stimulation. This activity is analyzed by two alternative methods, namely contraction analysis and calcium analysis with Fluo-4 AM. In all, our protocol provides an optimized version of previously published methods, enabling individual imaging of muscle bundles and straightforward analysis of muscle response with standard image analysis software. This system provides a start-to-finish guide on how to produce, validate, stimulate, and analyze bioengineered muscle. This ensures that the system can be quickly established by researchers with varying degrees of expertise, while maintaining reliability and similarity to native muscle.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Hydrogels
  • Muscle Contraction* / physiology
  • Muscle Development
  • Muscle, Skeletal* / physiology
  • Myoblasts
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Tissue Engineering / methods

Substances

  • Hydrogels

Grants and funding

JADR was supported by PRPSEM Project with ref. RTI2018-099773-B-I00 and PRPCDEVTAU with ref. PID2021-123714OB-I00 funded by MCINN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, the CERCA Programme, and the Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR2017-648). The project leading to these results also received funding from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) under the agreement LCF/PR/HR19/52160007 and the María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence (Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona) MDM-2017-0729. KWC was supported by the FPU Programme from the Spanish Ministry of Universities and JS-J by the Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundation.