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Optically controlled contraction of photosensitive skeletal muscle cells
Author(s) -
Asano Toshifumi,
Ishizua Toru,
Yawo Hiromu
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.23285
Subject(s) - myogenesis , c2c12 , myocyte , skeletal muscle , contraction (grammar) , multinucleate , muscle contraction , microbiology and biotechnology , channelrhodopsin , biology , stimulation , chemistry , biophysics , anatomy , neuroscience , endocrinology
As the skeletal muscle cell is an efficient force transducer, it has been incorporated in bio‐microdevices using electrical field stimulation for generating contractile patterns. To improve both the spatial and temporal resolutions, we made photosensitive skeletal muscle cells from murine C2C12 myoblasts, which express channelrhodopsin‐2 (ChR2), one of archaea‐type rhodopsins derived from green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . The cloned ChR2‐expressing C2C12 myoblasts were made and fused with untransfected C2C12 to form multinucleated myotubes. The maturation of myotubes was facilitated by electrical field stimulation. Blue LED light pulse depolarized the membrane potential of a ChR2‐expressing myotube and eventually evoked an action potential. It also induced a twitch‐like contraction in a concurrent manner. A contraction pattern was thus made with a given pattern of LED pulses. This technique would have many applications in the bioengineering field, such as wireless drive of muscle‐powered actuators/microdevices. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012;109: 199–204. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.