Manufacturing and Testing of Tissue-Engineered Pre-Aligned Muscle Fibers for Regenerative Therapies

Human skeletal muscle is challenging to create because it is composed of many thin fibers that must be precisely aligned in complex patterns. To address this challenge, the team has developed a process to produce three-dimensional (3D), aligned muscle fibers that mimic natural muscle tissue using a spinning technique similar to winding  thread on a spool. The goal of this project is to generate functional skeletal muscle fibers and assess their potential for both drug discovery and transplantation-based therapies. Because these muscle cells can be produced from a patient’s own stem cells, this organ fabrication approach has the potential to reduce reliance on donated tissues and significantly decrease the use of animals in research.