TEMR II – Coulter Project
Kimberly Smith
Volumetric Muscle Loss (VML) injuries result in irrecoverable functional and cosmetic deficits in skeletal muscle tissue. While some therapeutic approaches have demonstrated significant efficacy in treating these injuries, we are interested in further improving and optimizing these technologies. The Tissue Engineered Muscle Repair II (TEMR-II) program aims to develop an optimized bioreactor protocol for improved muscle cell seeding to enhance cell density and number of multi-nucleated myotubes in vitro. The ultimate goal of these experiments is to engineer an implantable skeletal muscle construct with demonstrably improved cell density, fiber diameter, and contractile function. This work is sponsored by a grant from UVA-Coulter Translational Research Partnership. Our key faculty collaborator is Bobby Chhabra, Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UVA.
Figure 1: A) Improved cell density of constructs prior to implantation. B) Demonstration of the function of the seeding chamber that minimizes disruption of the scaffolds while maximizing the efficacy of the cell seeding protocol
