Janet Shansky

Drug‐screening platform based on the contractility of tissue‐engineered muscle

A tissue‐based approach to in vitro drug screening allows for determination of the cumulative positive and negative effects of a drug at the tissue rather than the cellular or subcellular level. Skeletal muscle myoblasts were tissue‐engineered into three‐dimensional muscle with parallel myofibers generating directed forces. When grown attached to two flexible microposts (μposts) acting as artificial tendons in a 96‐well plate format, the miniature bioartificial muscles (mBAMs) generated tetanic (active) forces upon electrical stimulation measured with a novel image‐based motion detection system. mBAM myofiber hypertrophy and active force increased in response to insulin‐like growth factor 1. In contrast, mBAM deterioration and weakness was observed with a cholesterol‐lowering statin. The results described in this study demonstrate the integration of tissue engineering and biomechanical testing into a single platform for the screening of compounds affecting muscle strength. Muscle Nerve, 2007

Space travel directly induces skeletal muscle atrophy

Space travel causes rapid and pronounced skeletal muscle wasting in humans that reduces their long‐term flight capabilities. To develop effective countermeasures, the basis of this atrophy needs to be better understood. Space travel may cause muscle atrophy indirectly by altering circulating levels of factors such as growth hormone, glucocorticoids, and anabolic steroids and/or by a direct effect on the muscle fibers themselves. To determine whether skeletal muscle cells are directly affected by space travel, tissue‐cultured avian skeletal muscle cells were tissue engineered into bioartificial muscles and flown in perfusion bioreactors for 9 to 10 days aboard the Space Transportation System (STS, i.e., Space Shuttle). Significant muscle fiber atrophy occurred due to a decrease in protein synthesis rates without alterations in protein degradation. Return of the muscle cells to Earth stimulated protein synthesis rates of both muscle‐specific and extracellular matrix proteins relative to ground controls. These results show for the first time that skeletal muscle fibers are directly responsive to space travel and should be a target for countermeasure development.—Vandenburgh, H., Chromiak, J., Shansky, J., Del Tatto, M., Lemaire, J. Space travel directly induces skeletal muscle atrophy. FASEB J. 13, 1031–1038 (1999)

Tissue-Engineered Human Bioartificial Muscles Expressing a Foreign Recombinant Protein for Gene Therapy

Murine skeletal muscle cells transduced with foreign genes and tissue engineered in vitro into bioartificial muscles (BAMs) are capable of long-term delivery of soluble growth factors when implanted into syngeneic mice (Vandenburgh et al., 1996b). With the goal of developing a therapeutic cell-based protein delivery system for humans, similar genetic tissue-engineering techniques were designed for human skeletal muscle stem cells. Stem cell myoblasts were isolated, cloned, and expanded in vitro from biopsied healthy adult (mean age, 42 +/- 2 years), and elderly congestive heart failure patient (mean age, 76 +/- 1 years) skeletal muscle. Total cell yield varied widely between biopsies (50 to 672 per 100 mg of tissue, N = 10), but was not significantly different between the two patient groups. Percent myoblasts per biopsy (73 +/- 6%), number of myoblast doublings prior to senescence in vitro (37 +/- 2), and myoblast doubling time (27 +/- 1 hr) were also not significantly different between the two patient groups. Fusion kinetics of the myoblasts were similar for the two groups after 20-22 doublings (74 +/- 2% myoblast fusion) when the biopsy samples had been expanded to 1 to 2 billion muscle cells, a number acceptable for human gene therapy use. The myoblasts from the two groups could be equally transduced ex vivo with replication-deficient retroviral expression vectors to secrete 0.5 to 2 microg of a foreign protein (recombinant human growth hormone, rhGH)/10(6) cells/day, and tissue engineered into human BAMs containing parallel arrays of differentiated, postmitotic myofibers. This work suggests that autologous human skeletal myoblasts from a potential patient population can be isolated, genetically modified to secrete foreign proteins, and tissue engineered into implantable living protein secretory devices for therapeutic use.

Bioreactor perfusion system for the long-term maintenance of tissue-engineered skeletal muscle organoids

SummaryThree-dimensional skeletal muscle organ-like structures (organoids) formed in tissue culture by fusion of proliferating myoblasts into parallel networks of long, unbranched myofibers provide an in vivo-like model for examining the effects of growth factors, tension, and space flight on muscle cell growth and metabolism. To determine the feasibility of maintaining either avian or mammalian muscle organoids in a commercial perfusion bioreactor system, we measured metabolism, protein turnover, and autocrine/paracrine growth factor release rates. Medium glucose was metabolized at a constant rate in both low-serum- and serum-free media for up to 30 d. Total organoid noncollagenous protein and DNA content decreased approximately 22–28% (P<0.05) over a 13-d period. Total protein synthesis rates could be determined accurately in the bioreactors for up to 30 h and total protein degradation rates could be measured for up to 3 wk. Special fixation and storage conditions necessary for space flight studies were validated as part of the studies. For example, the anabolic autocrine/paracrine skeletal muscle growth factors prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) could be measured accurately in collected media fractions, even after storage at 37° C for up to 10 d. In contrast, creatine kinase activity (a marker of cell damage) in collected media fractions was unreliable. These results provide initial benchmarks for long-term ex vivo studies of tissue-engineered skeletal muscle.

A simplified method for tissue engineering skeletal muscle organoids in vitro

Tissue-engineered three dimensional skeletal muscle organ-like structures have been formed in vitro from primary myoblasts by several different techniques. This report describes a simplified method for generating large numbers of muscle organoids from either primary embryonic avian or neonatal rodent myoblasts, which avoids the requirements for stretching and other mechanical stimulation.

Automated drug screening with contractile muscle tissue engineered from dystrophic myoblasts

Identification of factors that improve muscle function in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) could lead to an improved quality of life. To establish a functional in vitro assay for muscle strength, mdx murine myoblasts, the genetic homologue of DMD, were tissue engineered in 96‐microwell plates into 3‐dimensional muscle constructs with parallel arrays of striated muscle fibers. When electrically stimulated, they generated tetanic forces measured with an automated motion tracking system. Thirty‐one compounds of interest as potential treatments for patients with DMD were tested at 3 to 6 concentrations. Eleven of the compounds (insulin‐like growth factor‐1, creat‐ine, β‐hydroxy‐β‐methylbutyrate, trichostatin A, lisino‐pril, and 6 from the glucocorticoid family) significantly increased tetanic force relative to placebo‐treated controls. The glucocorticoids methylprednisolone, deflazacort, and prednisone increased tetanic forces at low doses (EC50 of 6, 19, and 56 nM, respectively), indicating a direct muscle mechanism by which they may be benefitting DMD patients. The tetanic force assay also identified beneficial compound interactions (arginine plus deflazacort and prednisone plus creatine) as well as deleterious interactions (prednisone plus creatine inhibited by pentoxifylline) of combinatorial therapies taken by some DMD patients. Since mdx muscle in vivo and DMD patients respond in a similar manner to many of these compounds, the in vitro assay will be a useful tool for the rapid identification of new potential treatments for muscle weakness in DMD and other muscle disorders.—Vandenburgh, H., Shansky, J., Benesch‐Lee, F., Skelly, K., Spinazzola, J.M., Saponjian, Y., Tseng, B.S. Automated drug screening with contractile muscle tissue engineered from dystrophic myoblasts. FASEB J. 23, 3325–3334 (2009). www.fasebj.org

The Role of GH and IGF-I in Mediating Anabolic Effects of Testosterone on Androgen-Responsive Muscle

Testosterone (T) supplementation increases skeletal muscle mass, circulating GH, IGF-I, and im IGF-I expression, but the role of GH and IGF-I in mediating Ts effects on the skeletal muscle remains poorly understood. Here, we show that T administration increased body weight and the mass of the androgen-dependent levator ani muscle in hypophysectomized as well as castrated plus hypophysectomized adult male rats. T stimulated the proliferation of primary human skeletal muscle cells (hSKMCs) in vitro, an effect blocked by transfecting hSKMCs with small interference RNA targeting human IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR). In differentiation conditions, T promoted the fusion of hSKMCs into larger myotubes, an effect attenuated by small interference RNA targeting human IGF-IR. Notably, MKR mice, which express a dominant negative form of the IGF-IR in skeletal muscle fibers, treated with a GnRH antagonist (acyline) to suppress endogenous T, responded to T administration by an attenuated increase in the levator ani muscle mass. In conclusion, circulating GH and IGF-I are not essential for mediating Ts effects on an androgen-responsive skeletal muscle. IGF-I signaling plays an important role in mediating Ts effects on skeletal muscle progenitor cell growth and differentiation in vitro. However, IGF-IR signaling in skeletal muscle fibers does not appear to be obligatory for mediating the anabolic effects of T on the mass of androgen-responsive skeletal muscles in mice.

Minimally Invasive Approach to the Repair of Injured Skeletal Muscle With a Shape-memory Scaffold

Repair of injured skeletal muscle by cell therapies has been limited by poor survival of injected cells. Use of a carrier scaffold delivering cells locally, may enhance in vivo cell survival, and promote skeletal muscle regeneration. Biomaterial scaffolds are often implanted into muscle tissue through invasive surgeries, which can result in trauma that delays healing. Minimally invasive approaches to scaffold implantation are thought to minimize these adverse effects. This hypothesis was addressed in the context of a severe mouse skeletal muscle injury model. A degradable, shape-memory alginate scaffold that was highly porous and compressible was delivered by minimally invasive surgical techniques to injured tibialis anterior muscle. The scaffold controlled was quickly rehydrated in situ with autologous myoblasts and growth factors (either insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) alone or IGF-1 with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)). The implanted scaffolds delivering myoblasts and IGF-1 significantly reduced scar formation, enhanced cell engraftment, and improved muscle contractile function. The addition of VEGF to the scaffold further improved functional recovery likely through increased angiogenesis. Thus, the delivery of myoblasts and dual local release of VEGF and IGF-1 from degradable scaffolds implanted through a minimally invasive procedure effectively promoted the functional regeneration of injured skeletal muscle.

Organogenesis of skeletal muscle in tissue culture.

Skeletal muscle structure is regulated by many factors, including nutrition, hormones, electrical activity, and tension. The muscle cells are subjected to both passive and active mechanical forces at all stages of development, and these forces play important but poorly understood roles in regulating muscle organogenesis and growth. For example, during embryogenesis, the rapidly growing skeleton places large passive mechanical forces on the attached muscle tissue. These forces not only help to organize the proliferating mononucleated myoblasts into the oriented, multinucleated myofibers of a functional muscle, but also tightly couple the growth rate of muscle to that of bone. Postnatally, the actively contracting, innervated muscle fibers are subjected to different patterns of active and passive tensions that regulate longitudinal and cross-sectional myofiber growth. These mechanically induced organogenic processes have been difficult to study under normal tissue culture conditions, resulting in the development of numerous methods and specialized equipment to simulate the in vivo mechanical environment (1-4). These techniques have led to the engineering of bioartificial muscles (organoids), which display many of the characteristics of in vivo muscle, including parallel arrays of postmitotic fibers organized into fascicle-like structures with tendon-like ends. They are contractile, express adult isoforms of contractile proteins, perform directed work, and can be maintained in culture for long periods.

Therapeutic potential of implanted tissue-engineered bioartificial muscles delivering recombinant proteins to the sheep heart.

Abstract: Tissue‐engineered primary adult sheep muscle cells genetically engineered to express either rhVEGF or rhIGF‐1 secreted the bioactive proteins locally in the sheep heart for at least 30 days.