Global and local tension measurements in biomimetic skeletal muscle tissues reveals early mechanical homeostasis
- University of Münster, Germany
- University of Toronto, Canada
- Georg August University, Germany
- Universtity of Göttingen, Germany
Abstract
Tension and mechanical properties of muscle tissue are tightly related to proper skeletal muscle function, which makes experimental access to the biomechanics of muscle tissue formation a key requirement to advance our understanding of muscle function and development. Recently developed elastic in vitro culture chambers allow for raising 3D muscle tissue under controlled conditions and to measure global tissue force generation. However, these chambers are inherently incompatible with high resolution microscopy limiting their usability to global force measurements, and preventing the exploitation of modern fluorescence based investigation methods for live and dynamic measurements. Here we present a new chamber design pairing global force measurements, quantified from post deflection, with local tension measurements obtained from elastic hydrogel beads embedded in muscle tissue. High resolution 3D video microscopy of engineered muscle formation, enabled by the new chamber, shows an early mechanical tissue homeostasis that remains stable in spite of continued myotube maturation.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Programs are published on GitHub.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Human Frontier Science Program (RGP0018/2017)
- Penney M Gilbert
- Timo Betz
H2020 European Research Council (771201)
- Timo Betz
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-4357)
- Penney M Gilbert
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-7144)
- Penney M Gilbert
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering and Entrepreneurship Scholarship)
- Mohammad Ebrahim Afshar
University of Toronto (Canada Research Chair in Endogenous Repair)
- Penney M Gilbert
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 803)
- Roman Tsukanov
- Nazar Oleksiievets
- Jörg Enderlein
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC 2067/1)
- Jörg Enderlein
- Timo Betz
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Patricia Bassereau, Institut Curie, France
Publication history
- Received: June 17, 2020
- Accepted: January 17, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: January 18, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: February 25, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Hofemeier et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Global and local tension measurements in biomimetic skeletal muscle tissues reveals early mechanical homeostasis
eLife 10:e60145.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60145
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