A contactless electrical stimulator: application to fabricate functional skeletal muscle tissue

Ahadian, Samad; Ramón‐Azcón, Javier; Ostrovidov, Serge; Camci‐Unal, Gulden; Kaji, Hirokazu; Ino, Kosuke; Shiku, Hitoshi; Khademhosseini, Ali; Matsue, Tomokazu

doi:10.1007/s10544-012-9692-1

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…We identify several characteristic regimes and present their classification with respect to frequency, location, and the electrical properties of the model components. These findings provide key information for understanding the mechanisms of cell responses to the electrical stimulation, both in the context of data interpretation from recent in vitro experimental results by us [3] and others [43][44][45][46], and for future therapeutic applications.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Modulation of cell function by electric field: a high-resolution analysis

Taghian

Narmoneva

Kogan

2015

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Regulation of cell function by a non-thermal, physiological-level electromagnetic field has potential for vascular tissue healing therapies and advancing hybrid bioelectronic technology. We have recently demonstrated that a physiological electric field (EF) applied wirelessly can regulate intracellular signalling and cell function in a frequency-dependent manner. However, the mechanism for such regulation is not well understood. Here, we present a systematic numerical study of a cell-field interaction following cell exposure to the external EF. We use a realistic experimental environment that also recapitulates the absence of a direct electric contact between the field-sourcing electrodes and the cells or the culture medium. We identify characteristic regimes and present their classification with respect to frequency, location, and the electrical properties of the model components. The results show a striking difference in the frequency dependence of EF penetration and cell response between cells suspended in an electrolyte and cells attached to a substrate. The EF structure in the cell is strongly inhomogeneous and is sensitive to the physical properties of the cell and its environment. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms for frequency-dependent cell responses to EF that regulate cell function, which may have important implications for EF-based therapies and biotechnology development.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Modulation of cell function by electric field: a high-resolution analysis

Taghian

Narmoneva

Kogan

2015

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…As reported in our previous studies, this device is more efficient for stimulating engineered tissues than conventional electrical stimulators495051. For the ES of muscle myofibers, the differentiation medium was replaced with stimulation medium composed of DMEM with 2% horse serum, 1 nM insulin, 2% MEM essential amino acids, 1% MEM nonessential amino acids, and 1% P/S.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybrid hydrogels containing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with anisotropic electrical conductivity for muscle myofiber fabrication

Ahadian

Ramón‐Azcón

Estili

et al. 2014

Sci Rep

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222

178

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Biological scaffolds with tunable electrical and mechanical properties are of great interest in many different fields, such as regenerative medicine, biorobotics, and biosensing. In this study, dielectrophoresis (DEP) was used to vertically align carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) hydrogels in a robust, simple, and rapid manner. GelMA-aligned CNT hydrogels showed anisotropic electrical conductivity and superior mechanical properties compared with pristine GelMA hydrogels and GelMA hydrogels containing randomly distributed CNTs. Skeletal muscle cells grown on vertically aligned CNTs in GelMA hydrogels yielded a higher number of functional myofibers than cells that were cultured on hydrogels with randomly distributed CNTs and horizontally aligned CNTs, as confirmed by the expression of myogenic genes and proteins. In addition, the myogenic gene and protein expression increased more profoundly after applying electrical stimulation along the direction of the aligned CNTs due to the anisotropic conductivity of the hybrid GelMA-vertically aligned CNT hydrogels. We believe that platform could attract great attention in other biomedical applications, such as biosensing, bioelectronics, and creating functional biomedical devices.

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“…In addition, current technologies clearly demonstrate that only small gains in construct contractility can be achieved through manipulation of the tissue culture process [26], and that the largest gains are demonstrated when constructs are implanted [21]. Significant work has been done to replicate the in vivo environment during the fabrication of tissue constructs using electrical stimulation [9,11,80,81], growth factors [26], substrate stiffness [58,82] and oxygen levels [27] to improve construct structure and function in vitro ; however, the body remains the most complete bioreactor available with significant gains seen after skeletal muscle constructs are implanted for as little as 1 week [21]. The future direction for skeletal muscle tissue engineering may be to focus more on effective ways of implanting these tissues in a VML repair model rather than trying to enhance the phenotype of constructs in vitro .…”

Section: Future Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering Muscle Constructs for the Creation of Functional Engineered Musculoskeletal Tissue

et al. 2013

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Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is a disabling condition in which current clinical procedures are suboptimal. The field of tissue engineering has many promising strategies for the creation of functional skeletal muscle in vitro. However, there are still two key limitations that prevent it from becoming a solution for treating VML. First, engineered muscle tissue must be biocompatible to facilitate muscle tissue regrowth without generating an immune response. Second, engineered muscle constructs must be scaled up to facilitate replacement of clinically relevant volumes of tissue (centimeters in diameter). There are currently no tissue engineering strategies to produce tissue constructs that are both biocompatible and large enough to facilitate clinical repair. However, recent advances in tissue engineering using synthetic scaffolds, native scaffolds, or scaffold-free approaches may lead to a solution for repair of VML injuries.

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A contactless electrical stimulator: application to fabricate functional skeletal muscle tissue

Abstract: Engineered skeletal muscle tissues are ideal candidates for applications in drug screening systems,

Cited by 35 publications

References 31 publications

Modulation of cell function by electric field: a high-resolution analysis

Modulation of cell function by electric field: a high-resolution analysis

Hybrid hydrogels containing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with anisotropic electrical conductivity for muscle myofiber fabrication

Engineering Muscle Constructs for the Creation of Functional Engineered Musculoskeletal Tissue

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