TY  - JOUR
A1  - Maleiner, Babette
A1  - Tomasch, Janine
A1  - Heher, Philipp
A1  - Spadiut, Oliver
A1  - Rünzler, Dominik
A1  - Fuchs, Christiane
T1  - The Importance of Biophysical and Biochemical Stimuli in Dynamic Skeletal Muscle Models.
JF  - Frontiers in Physiology
N2  - Classical approaches to engineer skeletal muscle tissue based on current regenerative and surgical procedures still do not meet the desired outcome for patient applications. Besides the evident need to create functional skeletal muscle tissue for the repair of volumetric muscle defects, there is also growing demand for platforms to study muscle-related diseases, such as muscular dystrophies or sarcopenia. Currently, numerous studies exist that have employed a variety of biomaterials, cell types and strategies for maturation of skeletal muscle tissue in 2D and 3D environments. However, researchers are just at the beginning of understanding the impact of different culture settings and their biochemical (growth factors and chemical changes) and biophysical cues (mechanical properties) on myogenesis. With this review we intend to emphasize the need for new in vitro skeletal muscle (disease) models to better recapitulate important structural and functional aspects of muscle development. We highlight the importance of choosing appropriate system components, e.g., cell and biomaterial type, structural and mechanical matrix properties or culture format, and how understanding their interplay will enable researchers to create optimized platforms to investigate myogenesis in healthy and diseased tissue. Thus, we aim to deliver guidelines for experimental designs to allow estimation of the potential influence of the selected skeletal muscle tissue engineering setup on the myogenic outcome prior to their implementation. Moreover, we offer a workflow to facilitate identifying and selecting different analytical tools to demonstrate the successful creation of functional skeletal muscle tissue. Ultimately, a refinement of existing strategies will lead to further progression in understanding important aspects of muscle diseases, muscle aging and muscle regeneration to improve quality of life of patients and enable the establishment of new treatment options.
KW  - Bioreactor
KW  - Muscle
KW  - Biomaterial
Y1  - 
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Slezak, Paul
A1  - Slezak, Cyrill
A1  - Hartinger, Joachim
A1  - Teuschl, Andreas
A1  - Nürnberger, Sylvia
A1  - Redl, Heinz
A1  - Mittermayr, Rainer
T1  - A Low Cost Implantation Model in the Rat That Allows a Spatial Assessment of Angiogenesis.
JF  - Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
N2  - There is continual demand for animal models that allow a quantitative assessment of angiogenic properties of biomaterials, therapies, and pharmaceuticals. In its simplest form, this is done by subcutaneous material implantation and subsequent vessel counting which usually omits spatial data. We have refined an implantation model and paired it with a computational analytic routine which outputs not only vessel count but also vessel density, distribution, and vessel penetration depth, that relies on a centric vessel as a reference point. We have successfully validated our model by characterizing the angiogenic potential of a fibrin matrix in conjunction with recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (rhVEGF165). The inferior epigastric vascular pedicles of rats were sheathed with silicone tubes, which were subsequently filled with 0.2 ml of fibrin and different doses of rhVEGF165, centrically embedding the vessels. Over 4 weeks, tissue samples were harvested and subsequently immunohistologically stained and computationally analyzed. The model was able to detect variations over the angiogenic potentials of growth factor spiked fibrin matrices. Adding 20 ng of rhVEGF165 resulted in a significant increase in vasculature while 200 ng of rhVEGF165 did not improve vascular growth. Vascularized tissue volume increased during the first week and vascular density increased during the second week. Total vessel count increased significantly and exhibited a peak after 2 weeks which was followed by a resorption of vasculature by week 4. In summary, a simple implantation model to study in vivo vascularization with only a minimal workload attached was enhanced to include morphologic data of the emerging vascular tree.
KW  - Tissue Engineering
KW  - Bioreactor
KW  - Biomaterial
Y1  - 
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Freistetter, Florian
T1  - The Power of Lauf
KW  - Bioreactor
KW  - Muscle
KW  - Tissue Engineering
Y1  - 
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heher, Philipp
A1  - Maleiner, Babette
A1  - Prüller, Johanna
A1  - Teuschl, Andreas
A1  - Kollmitzer, Josef
A1  - Monforte Vila, Xavier
A1  - Wolbank, Susanne
A1  - Redl, Heinz
A1  - Rünzler, Dominik
A1  - Fuchs, Christiane
T1  - A novel bioreactor for the generation of highly aligned 3D skeletal muscle-like constructs through orientation of fibrin via application of static strain
JF  - Acta Biomaterialia
KW  - Bioreactor
Y1  - 
ER  -