Engineering Muscle Constructs for the Creation of Functional Engineered Musculoskeletal Tissue

Abstract

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.

Engineered Skeletal Muscle Units for Repair of Volumetric Muscle Loss in the Tibialis Anterior Muscle of a Rat

“…3 The diversity of VML cases along with the functional and metabolic demands of muscle tissue complicates surgical repair, so while several repair strategies exist, all have significant limitations. 1 The primary treatment strategies involve muscle flap transposition or autologous tissue transfer. [4][5][6][7][8][9] Although each procedure type has demonstrated some success, both are limited by donor site morbidity and lack of available graft tissue.…”

Tissue Engineered Scaffolds for an Effective Healing and Regeneration: Reviewing Orthotopic Studies

“…Electrospun fibrous matrices have been fabricated of different single or combinations of polymers and promote cell adhesion and proliferation and nutrient diffusion and provide favourable mechanical properties [184, 205, 206]. These sheets of fibres from polymers, and sometimes biological proteins (elastin and collagen), are cost-effective and can be customized for pore size and fiber diameter and length and density.…”

Biomaterials based strategies for skeletal muscle tissue engineering: Existing technologies and future trends

“…Muscle flaps usually lie in the vicinity of the injury site, and are advantageous because they bring with them an existing vascular network and mature nerve-muscle junctions. A variant of this treatment method is the free functional muscle transfer (FFMT), which allows donor tissue to be transplanted to any part of the body by cutting off the arteries, veins, and nerves at the donor site, and sewing them back at the defect site [11]. However, apart from being prone to multiple complications, FFMT can result in donor site morbidity and lead to longer rehabilitation times to account for adequate nerve regeneration and restoration of blood perfusion.…”