AccScience Publishing / IJB / Volume 9 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.18063/ijb.711
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Bioprinted Notch ligand to function as stem cell niche improves muscle regeneration in dystrophic muscle

Zewei Sun1† Xianlin Yue1† Lei Liu1 Ying Li1 Jie Cui1 Dong Li2 Lee Weiss3 Phil Campbell3 Yanling Mu1* Johnny Huard4* Xiaodong Mu1*
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1 Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China
2 Cryomedicine Lab, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China
3 The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
4 Center for Regenerative Sports Medicine, Steadman Philippon Research Institute, Vail, CO, USA
Submitted: 28 November 2022 | Accepted: 18 January 2023 | Published: 16 March 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced in 3D bioprinting and biofabrication of biomaterials)
© 2023 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy, dystrophic muscle phenotypes are closely associated with the exhaustion of muscle stem cells. Transplantation of muscle stem cells has been widely studied for improving muscle regeneration, but poor cell survival and self-renewal, rapid loss of stemness, and limited dispersion of grafted cells following transplantation have collectively hindered the overall success of this strategy. Optimized mechanisms for maintaining and improving stem cell function are naturally present in the microenvironment of the stem cell niche in healthy muscles. Therefore, one logical strategy toward improving stem cell function and efficiency of stem cell transplantation in diseased muscles would be the establishment of a microenvironment mimicking some key aspects of healthy native stem cell niches. Here, we applied inkjet-based bioprinting technology to engineer a mimicked artificial stem cell niche in dystrophic muscle, comprising stem cell niche regulating factors (Notch activator DLL1) bioprinted onto 3D DermaMatrix construct. The recombinant DLL1 protein, DLL1 (mouse): Fc (human) (rec), was applied here as the Notch activator. Bioprinted DermaMatrix construct was seeded with muscle stem cells in vitro, and increased stem cell maintenance and repressed myogenic differentiation process was observed. DLL1 bioprinted DermaMatrix construct was then engrafted into dystrophic muscle of mdx/scid mice, and the improved cell engraftment and progression of muscle regeneration was observed 10 days after engraftment. Our results demonstrated that bioprinting of Notch activator within 3D construct can be applied to serve as muscle stem cell niche and improve the efficacy of muscle stem cell transplantation in diseased muscle.

Keywords
Muscle dystrophy
Stem cell niche
Muscle stem cell
Notch signaling
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing