An in vitro model to replace animal testing of muscle physiology and function

骨骼肌是驱动我们的运动，姿势和呼吸的马达，使它们对生活至关重要。老年人骨骼肌功能的丧失和慢性疾病的结果是福尔斯的主要原因，并降低生活质量和寿命。骨骼肌在新陈代谢中也起着重要的作用。肌肉代谢功能的丧失可引起和/或加重许多慢性疾病，包括心脏病、高血压、肥胖症、糖尿病、癌症、抑郁症和骨质疏松症。因此，大量的时间和金钱被投入到研究骨骼肌。除了人类的投资，每年有超过50万只动物被用来研究肌肉的生理和功能如何适应疾病、基因、运动和药物。因此，创建一种用于研究肌肉生理学和功能的替代方法不仅可以减少用于此目的的动物数量，还可以提高人类生活的质量和长度。我们最近设计了一个肌肉模型，有可能实现这一目标。为了进一步发展我们的模型并测试其作为动物研究替代品的有用性，该提议着眼于：i）从永生细胞中工程肌肉，以便不再需要动物供体; ii）在我们的工程肌肉和我们的实验机器之间创建接口;（三）创造新的机器，使我们能够更好地模拟锻炼和生长，并可以商业化开发，以便其他人可以做类似的事情。以合理的成本进行实验;以及iv）比较工程化肌肉对模拟锻炼的反应是否与动物对锻炼的反应相似。

Skeletal muscles are the motors that drive our movement, posture and breathing making them essential to life. The loss of skeletal muscle function in the elderly and as a result of chronic disease is a major cause of falls and decreases quality of life and lifespan. Skeletal muscle also plays an essential function in metabolism. Loss of muscle metabolic function can cause and/or exacerbate a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, cancer, depression, and osteoporosis. As a result, a lot of time and money is invested in studying skeletal muscle. Beyond the human investment, every year over 500,000 animals are used to study how the physiology and function of muscle adapts to disease, genes, exercise, and drugs. Therefore, creating an alternative method for the study of muscle physiology and function could not only reduce the number of animals used for this purpose but could improve the quality and length of human lives as well. We have recently engineered a model of a muscle that has the potential to achieve this. In order to further develop our model and test its usefulness as a replacement for animal studies, this proposal looks to: i) engineer muscle from immortal cells so that animal donors are no longer required; ii) create an interface between our engineered muscle and our experimental machines; iii) create new machines that would allow us to better mimic exercise and growth and that could be developed commercially so that others could do similar experiments at a reasonable cost; and iv) compare whether the response to simulated exercise in engineered muscles is similar to the response of an animal to exercise.