Skeletal Muscle Differentiation on a Chip Shows Human Donor Mesoangioblasts Efficiency in Restoring Dystrophin in a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Model

This study aimed to provide in vitro quantitative evidence of the ability of mesoangioblasts to restore dystrophin, in terms of protein accumulation and distribution, within myotubes derived from DMD patients, using a microengineered model. We designed an ad hoc experimental strategy to miniaturize on a chip the standard process of muscle regeneration independent of variables such as inflammation and fibrosis. It is based on the coculture, at different ratios, of human dystrophin-positive myogenic progenitors and dystrophin-negative myoblasts in a substrate with muscle-like physiological stiffness and cell micropatterns. Results showed that both healthy myoblasts and mesoangioblasts restored dystrophin expression in DMD myotubes. However, mesoangioblasts showed unexpected efficiency with respect to myoblasts in dystrophin production in terms of the amount of protein produced (40% vs. 15%) and length of the dystrophin membrane domain (210–240 µm vs. 40–70 µm). These results show that our microscaled in vitro model of human DMD skeletal muscle validated previous in vivo preclinical work and may be used to predict efficacy of new methods aimed at enhancing dystrophin accumulation and distribution before they are tested in vivo, reducing time, costs, and variability of clinical experimentation. Significance This study aimed to provide in vitro quantitative evidence of the ability of human mesoangioblasts to restore dystrophin, in terms of protein accumula...
Source: Stem Cells Translational Medicine - Category: Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Mesangioblasts, Enabling Technologies for Cell-Based Clinical Translation Source Type: research