Substrate stiffness affects skeletal myoblast differentiation in vitro

To maximize the therapeutic efficacy of cardiac muscle constructs produced by stem cells and tissue engineering protocols, suitable scaffolds should be designed to recapitulate all the characteristics of native muscle and mimic the microenvironment encountered by cells in vivo. Moreover, so not to i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science and technology of advanced materials 2012-12, Vol.13 (6), p.064211-064211
Main Authors: Romanazzo, Sara, Forte, Giancarlo, Ebara, Mitsuhiro, Uto, Koichiro, Pagliari, Stefania, Aoyagi, Takao, Traversa, Enrico, Taniguchi, Akiyoshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cardiac tissue engineering
Cell adhesion
Cell adhesion & migration
Chemical composition
Crosslinking
Differentiation
Focus Papers
Formability
Mechanical properties
mechanobiology
Muscles
Muscular function
Musculoskeletal system
myoblasts
Scaffolds
Stem cells
Stiffness
substrate stiffness
Substrates
Tissue engineering
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Summary:To maximize the therapeutic efficacy of cardiac muscle constructs produced by stem cells and tissue engineering protocols, suitable scaffolds should be designed to recapitulate all the characteristics of native muscle and mimic the microenvironment encountered by cells in vivo. Moreover, so not to interfere with cardiac contractility, the scaffold should be deformable enough to withstand muscle contraction. Recently, it was suggested that the mechanical properties of scaffolds can interfere with stem/progenitor cell functions, and thus careful consideration is required when choosing polymers for targeted applications. In this study, cross-linked poly-ε-caprolactone membranes having similar chemical composition and controlled stiffness in a supra-physiological range were challenged with two sources of myoblasts to evaluate the suitability of substrates with different stiffness for cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Furthermore, muscle-specific and non-related feeder layers were prepared on stiff surfaces to reveal the contribution of biological and mechanical cues to skeletal muscle progenitor differentiation. We demonstrated that substrate stiffness does affect myogenic differentiation, meaning that softer substrates can promote differentiation and that a muscle-specific feeder layer can improve the degree of maturation in skeletal muscle stem cells.
ISSN:1468-6996
1878-5514
DOI:10.1088/1468-6996/13/6/064211