Silk Muscles
Scientists grow a model of skeletal muscles using silkworm silk
Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"
Researchers from the University of Utah (USA) use silkworm silk to grow skeletal muscle cells, improving traditional cell culture methods. In the future, this will improve the methods of treatment of muscle atrophy, the press service of the university reports. The scientists' findings are presented in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering (Clegg et al., Silkworm Silk Fiber Bundles as Improved In Vitro Scaffolds for Skeletal Muscle).
When scientists try to understand a disease and test treatments, they usually grow model cells on a flat plastic surface (for example, in a Petri dish). But cell growth on a two-dimensional surface has its limitations, primarily because muscle tissue is three-dimensional. Therefore, scientists from the University of Utah have developed a three-dimensional cell culture surface by growing cells on silk fibers wrapped around an acrylic frame.
The team used both unmodified and modified silkworm silk (the latter was produced by silkworms whose genome was "sewn" with spider genes).
Native silkworm silk has previously been used as three-dimensional models of cell cultures, but this is the first time that "transgenic" silkworm silk has been used to model skeletal muscles.
Cells grown on silkworm silk more closely mimic human skeletal muscles than cells grown on a conventional plastic surface. These cells showed increased mechanical flexibility and increased expression of genes necessary for muscle contraction. Silkworm silk also contributed to the correct alignment of muscle fibers, which is a necessary element for reliable muscle modeling.
Skeletal muscles are responsible for the movement of the skeleton, the stabilization of joints and the protection of internal organs. Deterioration of these muscles can occur for a variety of reasons, and it can happen quickly. For example, in just two weeks of immobilization, a person can lose almost a quarter of the strength of the quadriceps muscle. Understanding how muscles can atrophy so quickly should begin at the cellular level, with cell growth. Therefore, scientists are striving to create more advanced models in vitro.
"Researchers are growing cells on these 2D platforms, which are not very realistic, but give us a lot of information. Based on these results, they usually move on to an animal model and then to clinical trials. I am trying to complement this first step by developing more realistic models of healthy and diseased tissues in vitro," said Elizabeth Vargis, associate professor of biological engineering at the University of Utah.
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