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Functional evaluation of engineered 3d muscle‐tendon constructs
Author(s) -
Calve Sarah,
Kostrominova Tatiana Y,
Arruda Ellen M,
Larkin Lisa M
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a413-c
Subject(s) - tendon , isometric exercise , strain (injury) , biomedical engineering , anatomy , stiffness , ultimate tensile strength , materials science , chemistry , medicine , composite material
Our purpose was to evaluate the contractile and structural characteristics of three‐dimensional (3D) skeletal muscle constructs co‐cultured with engineered tendon constructs (ETC), segments of adult (ART), or fetal rat tail (FRT) tendon. The utilization of muscle only (MO) constructs is limited due to the lack of adhesion of the construct to synthetic anchors during force production. We hypothesized that the co‐culture of tendon tissue and muscle would produce constructs with viable muscle‐tendon interfaces that remain intact during force production. Construct diameter (μ M) and maximum isometric force (μ N) were measured and specific force (MPa) was determined on ETC (n=3), ART (n=3), MO (n=3) and FRT (n=5). Following measure of force, constructs were loaded at a constant strain rate until failure and surface strains were recorded optically across the tendon, muscle and the interface and used to determine nominal stress vs. nominal strain. The maximum tangent stiffness was determined by calculating the secondary slope of the stress‐strain response. There were no differences between the groups with respect to diameter, maximum force or specific force. The muscle‐tendon interface was robust and withstood tensile loading. The tendon region was 3x as stiff as the muscle region, therefore the muscle took on most of the strain and little or no strain was seen within the tendon. The majority of the constructs failed in the muscle region. In conclusion, using three sources of tendon tissue, we have successfully engineered 3D muscle‐tendon construct with viable muscle‐tendon interfaces. DARPA AFOSR FA9550‐05‐1‐0015.