Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) engineered tissue constructs are a novel and promising approach to tissue repair and regeneration. 3D tissue constructs have the ability to restore form and function to damaged soft tissue unlike previous methods, such as plastic surgery, which are able to restore only form, leaving the function of the soft tissue often compromised. In this study, we seeded murine myoblasts (C2C12) into a collagen composite scaffold and cultured the scaffold in a roller bottle cell culture system in order to create a 3D tissue graft in vitro. The 3D graft created in vitro was then utilized to investigate muscle tissue repair in vivo. The 3D muscle grafts were implanted into defect sites created in the skeletal muscles in mice. We detected that the scaffolds degraded slowly over time, and muscle healing was improved which was shown by an increased quantity of innervated and vascularized regenerated muscle fibers. Our results suggest that the collagen composite scaffold seeded with myoblasts can create a 3D muscle graft in vitro that can be employed for defect muscle tissue repair in vivo.