Figure 1.

Materials composed of cells and ECM show promise for recreating the complex, hierarchical structure of functional skeletal muscle tissue. ECM–cell composite scaffolds effectively guide cells towards the spatial organization required for muscle, nerve, and blood vessel formation. (A–C) Cellular guiding effects of ECM–cellular (ECM–C) and control scaffolds. Skeletal actin fibers and nuclei of (A) L6, (B) RSC96, and (C) A10 cells were respectively stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugated phalloidin and DAPI at one and three days. (D,E) Live/dead staining and cell viability of L6, RSC96, and A10 cells on different scaffolds at seven days. Live cells are stained green and dead cells are stained red (n  =  15). Figure adapted with permission from Zhu et al. 2019 [33].