Tissue engineering of skeletal muscle in collagen gel

In order to construct functional skeletal muscle in vitro for tissue engineering, cell alignment followed by the fusion of skeletal muscle cells, and the construction of basement membrane are needed. Of the various means used to align skeletal muscle cells, the mechanical load method is the most popular. In the present paper, we describe the history of attempts to align skeletal muscle cells in vitro and the construction of basement membrane. We then describe the challenges we faced to achieve skeletal muscle tissue engineering in type I collagen gel by co-culturing various types of cells including skeletal muscle cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and fetal rat anterior horn cells.