Harvest of Cell-Only Muscle Fibers Using Thermally Expandable Hydrogels with Adhesive Patterns

Muscle tissue engineering has been the focus of extensive research due to its potential for numerous medical applications, including ex vivo actuator development and clinical treatments. In this study, we developed a method for harvesting muscle fiber in a floatable and translocatable manner utilizing thermally expandable hydrogels with a chemically patterned polydopamine (PD) layer generated by microcontact printing (& mu;CP). The & mu;CP of PD on the hydrogel facilitated the formation of stripe patterns with varying widths of printed/nonprinted area (50/50, 100/100, and 200/200 & mu;m). The spatially controlled adhesion of C2C12 myoblasts on the PD patterns produced clearly distinguishable muscle fibers, and translocated muscle fibers exhibited preserved extracellular matrix and junction proteins. Furthermore, the development of anisotropic arrangements and mature myotubes within the fibers suggests the potential for functional control of engineered muscle tissues. Overall, the muscle fiber harvesting method developed herein is suitable for both translocation and floating and is a promising technique for muscle tissue engineering as it mimics the structure-function relationship of natural tissue. Impact statementThis study developed a method for harvesting muscle fibers using thermally expandable hydrogels with cell adhesive polydopamine (PD) patterns. The spatially controlled adhesion of C2C12 myoblasts on the PD patterns produced muscle fibers with preserved extracellular matrix and junction proteins. The anisotropic arrangements and matured myotubes within the fibers suggest the potential for functional control of the engineered muscle fibers. This promising technique mimicking the structure-function relationship of natural muscle tissue could have significant implications in clinical treatments and ex vivo model development.