Journal: Materials Today Bio

Article Title: 3D printing- and cyclic strain-driven engineering of skeletal muscle blocks using enhanced viscoelastic extracellular matrix bioink

doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2026.102947

Figure Lengend Snippet: Engineering uniaxially aligned muscle blocks using a stretchable multi-chamber bioreactor. (A) Schematic of the bioreactor system showing the stretchable multi-chamber platform, actuator, and chamber design. (B) Photographs of the stretchable platform containing engineered muscle blocks under unstretched and stretched conditions. (C) Immunofluorescence staining for myosin heavy chain (MHC) after 14 days of differentiation, showing enhanced myotube alignment and maturation under cyclic strain (scale bars: 100 μm). (D) Calcium imaging of muscle blocks using Fluo-4 AM during electrical stimulation, confirming synchronized calcium oscillations. (E) Western blot analysis of myosin heavy chain (MHC), α-actinin, and troponin T demonstrating enhanced myogenic protein expression under cyclic strain. (F) Normalized protein expression levels of MHC, α-actinin, and troponin T relative to GAPDH. (G) Quantitative gene expression analysis of myogenic markers under different cyclic strain conditions. qRT-PCR data were normalized to β-actin. Data were presented as mean ± SEM (n = 3). ∗ p < 0.05, ∗∗ p < 0.01.

Article Snippet: Membranes were incubated with primary antibodies against myosin heavy chain (R&D Systems, MAB4470), troponin T-FS (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, sc-365575), α-actinin (Cell Signaling, 3134S), and GAPDH (Cell Signaling, #97166), followed by incubation with HRP-conjugated secondary antibodies (Cell Signaling, 7076S, 7074S).

Techniques: Immunofluorescence, Staining, Imaging, Western Blot, Expressing, Gene Expression, Quantitative RT-PCR