An in vitro human skeletal muscle model: Coculture of myotubes, neuron-like cells and the capillary network

This study reports the generation of a new human muscle tissue equivalent from skeletal muscle-derived stem cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2017) 41: 514-525 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article An in vitro human skeletal muscle model: coculture of myotubes, neuron-like cells, and the capillary network 1,2,3 3,4 5 1,3 2,3 Ayşe Burcu ERTAN , Halime KENAR *, Tahsin BEYZADEOĞLU , Fatma Neşe KÖK , Gamze TORUN KÖSE 1 Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Biotechnology Program, İstanbul Technical University, İstanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Genetics and Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, Yeditepe University, İstanbul, Turkey 3 Center of Excellence in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (BIOMATEN), Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey 4 Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey 5 School of Health Sciences, Haliç University, İstanbul, Turkey Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: This study reports the generation of a new human muscle tissue equivalent from skeletal muscle-derived stem cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Skeletal muscle stem cells were isolated by the preplate technique and differentiated into neuron-like cells that were positive for neuronal beta-tubulin3 and nestin and negative for the astrocyte marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Coculture of skeletal muscle stem cells with the HUVECs under optimized fetal bovine serum and media conditions resulted in formation of a capillary network among the multinucleated myotubes. The neuron-like cells derived from the human skeletal muscle stem cells were seeded onto vascularized myotubes to obtain the neuromuscular junctions in the coculture. At the end of 24 h of coculture, the neuron-like cells were found to be in association with the myotubes. This model represents a novel complex in vitro human skeletal muscle model containing advanced capillary networks and interacting myotubes and neurons, and it can be .