Highlights d Human atlas of limb skeletal muscle in embryonic, fetal, and adult tissues d Human limb skeletal muscle populations and supportive cells vary across development d PAX7 muscle progenitor and stem cells are not identical across developmental states d hPSC-PAX7 cells align to the embryonic-to-fetal transition in human development

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Luminescence thermometry represents a technique of choice for measurements in small objects and imaging of temperature distribution. However, most state‐of‐the‐art luminescent probes are limited in spectral characteristics, brightness, photostability, and sensitivity. Molecular thermometers of the new generation utilizing air and moisture‐stable zirconium(IV) pyridinedipyrrolide complexes can address all these limitations. The dyes emit pure thermally activated delayed fluorescence without any prompt fluorescence and show a unique combination of attractive features: a) visible light excitation and emission in the orange/red region, b) high luminescence brightness (quantum yields ≈0.5 in toluene and 0.8–1.0 in polystyrene matrix), c) excellent photostability, d) suitability for two‐photon excitation and e) mono‐exponential decay on the order of tens to hundreds of microseconds with strongly temperature‐dependent lifetimes (between −2.5 and −2.9% K−1 in polystyrene at 25 °C). Immobilization in gas‐blocking polymers yields sensing materials for self‐referenced decay time read‐out that are manufactured in two common formats: planar optodes and water‐dispersible nanoparticles. Positively charged nanoparticles are demonstrated to be suitable for nanothermometry in live cells and multicellular spheroids. Negatively charged nanoparticles represent advanced analytical tools for imaging temperature gradients in samples of small volumes such as microfluidic devices.

The use of biomaterials and biomaterial functionalization is a promising approach to support pancreatic islet viability posttransplantation in an effort to reduce insulin dependence for patients afflicted with diabetes mellitus type 1. Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins are known to impact numerous reparative functions in the body. Assessing how endogenously expressed pancreatic ECM proteins are affected by posttransplant-like hypoxic conditions may provide significant insights toward the development of tissue-engineered therapeutic strategies to positively influence b-cell survival, proliferation, and functionality. Here, we investigated the expression of three relevant groups of pancreatic ECM proteins in human native tissue, including basement membrane (BM) proteins (collagen type 4 [COL4], laminins [LAM]), proteoglycans (decorin [DCN], nidogen-1 [NID1]), and fibril-forming proteins (fibronectin [FN], collagen type 1 [COL1]). In an in vitro hypoxia model, we identified that ECM proteins were differently affected by hypoxic conditions, contributing to an overall loss of b-cell functionality. The use of a COL1 hydrogel as carrier material demonstrated a protective effect on bcells mitigating the effect of hypoxia on proteoglycans as well as fibril-forming protein expression, supporting b-cell functionality in hypoxia. We further showed that providing endothelial cells (ECs) into the COL1 hydrogel improves b-cell response as well as the expression of relevant BM proteins. Our data show that b-cells benefit from a microenvironment composed of structure-providing COL1 with the incorporation of ECs to withstand the harsh conditions of hypoxia. Such hydrogels support b-cell survival and can serve as an initial source of ECM proteins to allow cell engraftment while preserving cell functionality posttransplantation.