Wang Xiang, Schirmer Claire, Totter Elena, Schuerle Simone
Institute of Translational Medicine, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jul 18;11(29):eadw5786. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw5786. Epub 2025 Jul 16.
Engineered skeletal muscle holds potential for tissue engineering and biohybrid robotics applications. However, current strategies face challenges in enhancing force generation while maintaining stability and scalability of the muscle, largely due to insufficient oxygenation and limited nutrient delivery. In this study, we present an engineering approach to address these limitations by coculturing (), a photosynthetic unicellular green microalga, with C2C12 myoblasts in a hydrogel matrix. Leveraging the photosynthetic activity of , our microalgae-empowered muscle (MAM) constructs exhibited superior contractility and almost three times higher active force generation compared to conventional muscle constructs. MAM showed higher cellular viability and reduced tissue damage, attributed to in situ oxygenation and nutrient supply provided by microalgal photosynthesis. In addition, improved myotube alignment was observed in MAM, which contributed to enhanced force generation. Our findings showcase the potential of photosynthetic microalgae as a functional component in engineered skeletal muscle, offering a solution to longstanding challenges in muscle engineering.
工程化骨骼肌在组织工程和生物混合机器人应用方面具有潜力。然而，目前的策略在增强肌肉力量生成的同时，还要维持其稳定性和可扩展性，这面临着挑战，主要原因是氧合不足和营养物质输送受限。在本研究中，我们提出了一种工程方法来解决这些限制，即将一种光合单细胞绿色微藻（）与C2C12成肌细胞在水凝胶基质中共培养。利用的光合活性，我们的微藻赋能肌肉（MAM）构建体表现出卓越的收缩性，与传统肌肉构建体相比，其主动力生成几乎高出三倍。MAM显示出更高的细胞活力并减少了组织损伤，这归因于微藻光合作用提供的原位氧合和营养供应。此外，在MAM中观察到肌管排列得到改善，这有助于增强力量生成。我们的研究结果展示了光合微藻作为工程化骨骼肌中功能成分的潜力，为肌肉工程中长期存在的挑战提供了解决方案。
