Bone morphogenetic protein signaling inhibitor improves differentiation and function of 3D muscle construct fabricated using C2C12.

Functional tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscle tissue has great potential for pharmacological and academic applications. This study demonstrates an in vitro tissue engineering system to construct functional artificial skeletal muscle tissues using self-organization and signal inhibitors. To induce efficient self-organization, we optimized the substrate stiffness and extracellular matrix (ECM) coatings. We modified the tissue morphology to be ring-shaped under optimized self-organization conditions. A bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) inhibitor was added to improve overall myogenic differentiation. This supplementation enhanced the myogenic differentiation ratio and myotube hypertrophy in two-dimensional cell cultures. Finally, we found that myotube hypertrophy was enhanced by a combination of self-organization with ring-shaped tissue and a BMP inhibitor. BMP inhibitor treatment significantly improved myogenic marker expression and contractile force generation in the self-organized tissue. These observations indicated that this procedure may provide a novel and functional artificial skeletal muscle for pharmacological studies.

Production of 3-Hydroxytyrosol from Glucose by Chromosomally Engineered Escherichia coli by Fed-Batch Cultivation in a Jar Fermenter.

3-Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is a super antioxidant possessing many physiological advantages for human health. However, the extraction of natural HT from olive (Olea europaea) is expensive, and its chemical synthesis presents an environmental burden. Therefore, microbial production of HT from renewable sources has been investigated over the past decade. In the present study, we modified the chromosome of a phenylalanine-producing strain of Escherichia coli to generate an HT-producing strain. The initial strain showed good HT production in tests performed by test tube cultivation, but this performance did not transfer to jar-fermenter cultivation. To grow well and achieve higher titers, the chromosome was further engineered and the cultivation conditions were further modified. The final strain achieved a higher HT titer (8.8 g/L) and yield (8.7%) from glucose in the defined synthetic medium. These yields are the best reported to date for the biosynthesis of HT from glucose.

Recent advances in animal cell technologies for industrial and medical applications.

The industrial use of living organisms for bioproduction of valued substances has been accomplished mostly using microorganisms. To produce high-value bioproducts such as antibodies that require glycosylation modification for better performance, animal cells have been recently gaining attention in bioengineering because microorganisms are unsuitable for producing such substances. Furthermore, animal cells are now classified as products because a large number of cells are required for use in regenerative medicine. In this article, we review animal cell technologies and the use of animal cells, focusing on useable cell generation and large-scale production of animal cells. We review recent advance in mammalian cell line development because this is the first step in the production of recombinant proteins, and it largely affects the efficacy of the production. We next review genetic engineering technology focusing on CRISPR-Cas system as well as surrounding technologies as these methods have been gaining increasing attention in areas that use animal cells. We further review technologies relating to bioreactors used in the context of animal cells because they are essential for the mass production of target products. We also review tissue engineering technology because tissue engineering is one of the main exits for mass-produced cells; in combination with genetic engineering technology, it can prove to be a promising treatment for patients with genetic diseases after the establishment of induced pluripotent stem cell technology. The technologies highlighted in this review cover brief outline of the recent animal cell technologies related to industrial and medical applications.

Microarray profiling of gene expression in C2C12 myotubes trained by electric pulse stimulation.

Electric pulse-stimulated C2C12 myotubes are gaining interest in the field of muscle physiology and biotechnology because electric pulse stimulation (EPS) enhances sarcomere structure development and active tension generation capability. Recently, we found that termination of EPS results in the rapid loss of active tension generation accompanied by disassembly of the sarcomere structure, which may represent an in vitro muscle atrophy model. To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this rapid loss of active tension generation and sarcomere structure disassembly after termination of EPS, we performed transcriptomic analysis using microarray. After termination of EPS, 74 genes were upregulated and 120 genes were downregulated after 30 min; however, atrophy-related genes were not found among these genes. To further assess the effect of EPS on gene expression, we re-applied EPS after its termination for 8 h and searched for genes whose expression was reversed. Four genes were upregulated by termination of EPS and downregulated by the re-application of EPS, whereas two genes were downregulated by termination of EPS and upregulated by the re-application of EPS. Although none of these genes were atrophy- or hypertrophy-related, the results presented in this study will contribute to the understanding of gene expression changes that mediate rapid loss of active tension generation and sarcomere structure disassembly following termination of EPS in C2C12 myotubes.

Engineered whole cut meat-like tissue by the assembly of cell fibers using tendon-gel integrated bioprinting.

With the current interest in cultured meat, mammalian cell-based meat has mostly been unstructured. There is thus still a high demand for artificial steak-like meat. We demonstrate in vitro construction of engineered steak-like tissue assembled of three types of bovine cell fibers (muscle, fat, and vessel). Because actual meat is an aligned assembly of the fibers connected to the tendon for the actions of contraction and relaxation, tendon-gel integrated bioprinting was developed to construct tendon-like gels. In this study, a total of 72 fibers comprising 42 muscles, 28 adipose tissues, and 2 blood capillaries were constructed by tendon-gel integrated bioprinting and manually assembled to fabricate steak-like meat with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 10 mm inspired by a meat cut. The developed tendon-gel integrated bioprinting here could be a promising technology for the fabrication of the desired types of steak-like cultured meats.

Effect of hydrogen peroxide concentration on the maintenance and differentiation of cultured skeletal muscle cells.

We have studied the effects of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on the differentiation and maintenance of C2C12 myoblasts. The effects of H2O2 were evaluated by cell viability, total protein concentration, the relative amount of muscle-related proteins, sarcomere structure, and active tension generation. Oxidative stress is one of the major causes of myopathy after exercise and thus establishing the method to evaluate the effects on muscle function is essential. The primary function of striated muscle is to generate force, thus, the measurement of active tension is important in assessing the effect of chemicals on muscle. Among the indices we tested, the sarcomere structure was the most sensitive to the H2O2 exposure while the cell viability was less sensitive. The effects of H2O2 on active tension correlated with a decrease in the amount of muscle proteins. In this study, our results showed that the effect of chemicals on muscle should be measured in multiple ways, including active tension generation, for a better understanding of its physiological impact.

Chromosome Engineering To Generate Plasmid-Free Phenylalanine- and Tyrosine-Overproducing Escherichia coli Strains That Can Be Applied in the Generation of Aromatic-Compound-Producing Bacteria.

Many phenylalanine- and tyrosine-producing strains have used plasmid-based overexpression of pathway genes. The resulting strains achieved high titers and yields of phenylalanine and tyrosine. Chromosomally engineered, plasmid-free producers have shown lower titers and yields than plasmid-based strains, but the former are advantageous in terms of cultivation cost and public health/environmental risk. Therefore, we engineered here the Escherichia coli chromosome to create superior phenylalanine- and tyrosine-overproducing strains that did not depend on plasmid-based expression. Integration into the E. coli chromosome of two central metabolic pathway genes (ppsA and tktA) and eight shikimate pathway genes (aroA, aroB, aroC, aroD, aroE, aroGfbr , aroL, and pheAfbr ), controlled by the T7lac promoter, resulted in excellent titers and yields of phenylalanine; the superscript "fbr" indicates that the enzyme encoded by the gene was feedback resistant. The generated strain could be changed to be a superior tyrosine-producing strain by replacing pheAfbr with tyrAfbr A rational approach revealed that integration of seven genes (ppsA, tktA, aroA, aroB, aroC, aroGfbr , and pheAfbr ) was necessary as the minimum gene set for high-yield phenylalanine production in E. coli MG1655 (tyrR, adhE, ldhA, pykF, pflDC, and ascF deletant). The phenylalanine- and tyrosine-producing strains were further applied to generate phenyllactic acid-, 4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid-, tyramine-, and tyrosol-producing strains; yield of these aromatic compounds increased proportionally to the increase in phenylalanine and tyrosine yields.IMPORTANCE Plasmid-free strains for aromatic compound production are desired in the aspect of industrial application. However, the yields of phenylalanine and tyrosine have been considerably lower in plasmid-free strains than in plasmid-based strains. The significance of this research is that we succeeded in generating superior plasmid-free phenylalanine- and tyrosine-producing strains by engineering the E. coli chromosome, which was comparable to that in plasmid-based strains. The generated strains have a potential to generate superior strains for the production of aromatic compounds. Actually, we demonstrated that four kinds of aromatic compounds could be produced from glucose with high yields (e.g., 0.28 g tyrosol/g glucose).

Effect of cell-extracellular matrix interaction on myogenic characteristics and artificial skeletal muscle tissue.

Although various types of artificial skeletal muscle tissue have been reported, the contractile forces generated by tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles remain to be improved for biological model and clinical applications. In this study, we investigated the effects of extracellular matrix (ECM) and supplementation of a small molecule, which has been reported to enhance α7ß1 integrin expression (SU9516), on cell migration speed, cell fusion rate, myoblast (mouse C2C12 cells) differentiation and contractile force generation of tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles. When cells were cultured on varying ECM coated-surfaces, we observed significant enhancement in the migration speed, while the myotube formation (differentiation ratio) decreased in all except for cells cultured on Matrigel coated-surfaces. In contrast, SU9516 supplementation resulted in an increase in both the myotube width and differentiation ratio. Following combined culture with a Matrigel-coated surface and SU9516 supplementation, myotube width was further increased. Additionally, contractile forces produced by the tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles was augmented following combined culture. These findings indicate that regulation of the cell-ECM interaction is a promising approach to improve the function of tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles.

Escherichia coli chromosome-based T7-dependent constitutive overexpression system and its application to generating a phenylalanine producing strain.

Many metabolic engineering approaches have been attempted to generate strains capable of producing valuable compounds. One of main goals is industrial application of these strains. Integration of synthetic pathway genes into the Escherichia coli chromosome enables generation of a plasmid-free strain that is stable and useful for industrial applications. Strains that do not require induction are advantageous in terms of cost. In the present study, we constructed a constitutive overexpression system in E. coli to generate plasmid-free and inducer-free strains. The T7 RNA polymerase/T7 promoter overexpression system, which is an isopropyl-ß-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)-inducible gene overexpression system (T7-dependent inducible overexpression system), was modified to be a constitutive overexpression system. The constructed overexpression system, a "chromosome-based T7-dependent constitutive overexpression system", was applied in a metabolic engineering study to generate a plasmid-free and inducer-free phenylalanine producing strain of E. coli.

Size- and time-dependent growth properties of human induced pluripotent stem cells in the culture of single aggregate.

Aggregate culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is a promising method to obtain high number of cells for cell therapy applications. This study quantitatively evaluated the effects of initial cell number and culture time on the growth of hiPSCs in the culture of single aggregate. Small size aggregates ((1.1 ± 0.4) × 101-(2.8 ± 0.5) × 101 cells/aggregate) showed a lower growth rate in comparison to medium size aggregates ((8.8 ± 0.8) × 101-(6.8 ± 1.1) × 102 cells/aggregate) during early-stage of culture (24-72 h). However, when small size aggregates were cultured in conditioned medium, their growth rate increased significantly. On the other hand, large size aggregates ((1.1 ± 0.2) × 103-(3.5 ± 1.1) × 103 cells/aggregate) showed a lower growth rate and lower expression level of proliferation marker (ki-67) in the center region of aggregate in comparison to medium size aggregate during early-stage of culture. Medium size aggregates showed the highest growth rate during early-stage of culture. Furthermore, hiPSCs proliferation was dependent on culture time because the growth rate decreased significantly during late-stage of culture (72-120 h) at which point collagen type I accumulated on the periphery of aggregate, suggesting blockage of diffusive transport of nutrients, oxygen and metabolites into and out of the aggregates. Consideration of initial cell number and culture time are important to maintain balance between autocrine factors secretion and extracellular matrix accumulation on the aggregate periphery to achieve optimal growth of hiPSCs in the culture of single aggregate.

Culture medium refinement by dialysis for the expansion of human induced pluripotent stem cells in suspension culture.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) secrete essential autocrine factors that are removed along with toxic metabolites when the growth medium is exchanged daily. In this study, after determining the minimum inhibitory level of lactic acid for hiPSCs, a medium refining system was constructed by which toxic metabolites were removed from used culture medium and autocrine factors as well as other growth factors were recycled. Specifically, about 87 % of the basic fibroblast growth factor and 80 % of transforming growth factor beta 1 were retained in the refined medium after dialysis. The refined medium efficiently potentiated the proliferation of hiPS cells in adherent culture. When the refining system was used to refresh medium in suspension culture, a final cell density of (1.1 ± 0.1) × 106 cells mL-1 was obtained, with 99.5 ± 0.2 % OCT 3/4 and 78.3 ± 1.1 % TRA-1-60 expression, on day 4 of culture. These levels of expression were similar to those observed in the conventional suspension culture. With this method, culture medium refinement by dialysis was established to remove toxic metabolites, recycle autocrine factors as well as other growth factors, and reduce the use of macromolecules for the expansion of hiPSCs in suspension culture.

Disruption of myoblast alignment by highly motile rhabdomyosarcoma cell in tissue structure.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly malignant tumor type of skeletal muscle origin, hallmarked by local invasion. Interaction between invasive tumor cells and normal cells plays a major role in tumor invasion and metastasis. Culturing tumor cells in a three-dimensional (3D) model can translate tumor malignancy relevant cell-cell interaction. To mimic tumor heterogeneity in vitro, a co-culture system consisting of a malignant embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) cell line RD and a normal human skeletal muscle myoblast (HSMM) cell line was established by cell sheet technology. Various ratios of RDs to HSMMs were employed to understand the quantitative effect on intercellular interactions. Disruption of sheet structure was observed in heterogeneous cell sheets having a low ratio of RDs to HSMMs, whereas homogeneous HSMM or RD sheets maintained intact structure. Deeper exploration of dynamic tumor cell behavior inside HSMM sheets revealed that HSMM cell alignment was disrupted by highly motile RDs. This study demonstrated that RMS cells are capable of compromising their surrounding environment through induced decay of HSMMs alignment in a cell-based 3D system. This suggests that muscle disruption might be a major consequence of RMS cell invasion into muscles, which could be a promising target to preventing tumor invasion.

Induction of functional tissue-engineered skeletal muscle constructs by defined electrical stimulation.

Electrical impulses are necessary for proper in vivo skeletal muscle development. To fabricate functional skeletal muscle tissues in vitro, recapitulation of the in vivo niche, including physical stimuli, is crucial. Here, we report a technique to engineer skeletal muscle tissues in vitro by electrical pulse stimulation (EPS). Electrically excitable tissue-engineered skeletal muscle constructs were stimulated with continuous electrical pulses of 0.3 V/mm amplitude, 4 ms width, and 1 Hz frequency, resulting in a 4.5-fold increase in force at day 14. In myogenic differentiation culture, the percentage of peak twitch force (%Pt) was determined as the load on the tissue constructs during the artificial exercise induced by continuous EPS. We optimized the stimulation protocol, wherein the tissues were first subjected to 24.5%Pt, which was increased to 50-60%Pt as the tissues developed. This technique may be a useful approach to fabricate tissue-engineered functional skeletal muscle constructs.

Endothelial cell behavior inside myoblast sheets with different thickness.

Using a cell sheet stacking method, we developed an in vitro culture system in which green fluorescent protein expressing human umbilical vein endothelial cells (GFP-HUVECs) were cultured under human skeletal muscle myoblast (HSMM) sheets with different layer numbers. Our aim in developing this system was to examine the different endothelial behaviors in the cell sheet. During 96 h of incubation, in monolayer HSMM sheet, HUVECs quickly reached the top of the cell sheet and detached. In three-layered HSMM sheet, HUVECs also migrated to the top layer and formed island-shaped aggregates. In five-layered HSMM sheet, HUVECs migrated into the middle of the cell sheet and formed net-shaped aggregates. In seven-layered HSMM sheet, HUVECs migrated in the basal of the cell sheet and formed sparse net-shaped aggregates. The thickness of the HSMM sheet, which can be controlled by the layer number of the cell sheet, is therefore an important parameter that affects the migration time, encounters, localization, and morphology of HUVECs inside the HSMM sheet.

Network formation through active migration of human vascular endothelial cells in a multilayered skeletal myoblast sheet.

Autologous transplantation of myoblast sheet has attracted attention as a new technique for curing myocardial infarction. Myoblast sheet has the ability to secret cytokines that improve heart function via the facilitation of angiogenesis on affected part. To mimic the in vivo angiogenesis in the myoblast sheet after transplantation, a five-layered cell sheet of human skeletal muscle myoblasts (HSMMs) was overlaid on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) which enables evaluation of dynamic HUVEC behavior. HUVECs existing initially at the bottom of the sheet changed to be a stretched shape and migrated upward compared with the surrounding HSMMs in the sheet. Prolonged incubation resulted in network formation of HUVECs in the middle of the sheet, although non-networked HUVECs continued to migrate to the top of the sheet, which meant the spatial habitation of HUVECs in the cell sheet. Image processing was performed to determine the variation in the extent of network formation at different HUVEC densities. It was found that the extent of formed network depended on the frequency of encounters among HUVECs in the middle of the sheet. The present system, which can evaluate network formation, is considered to be a promising in vitro angiogenesis model.

Fed-batch system for cultivating genetically engineered yeast that produces lactic acid via the fermentative promoter.

A simple fed-batch system for cultivating genetically engineered yeast generating lactate under the regulation of the PDC1 promoter was established. Traditional strategies that avoid occurrence of Crabtree effect, such as respiratory quotient (RQ) control or ethanol control, are not applicable to the strain because of reduced generation of ethanol and CO(2) by-products. In this system, the feed rate increased when the pH was >5.0, and decreased when the pH was <5.0. Using this system, cell yields on sucrose increased by approximately 30% compared to that with the conventional RQ control method, due to the early detection of occurrence of Crabtree effect by pH decrease.

Metabolic flux analysis of genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae that produces lactate under micro-aerobic conditions.

In the present study, to elucidate mechanisms of growth suppression in YIBO-pdc1/5Δ, we performed carbon metabolic flux analysis under micro-aerobic conditions. Our results indicate that growth suppression of YIBO-pdc1/5Δ is caused by decreased flux to the pentose phosphate pathway, which supplies ribose-5-phosphate, a precursor for histidine synthesis in Sacchar omyces cerevisiae. In addition, significant accumulation of pyruvate was observed in the continuous culture.

Evaluation systems of generated forces of skeletal muscle cell-based bio-actuators.

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in the body, and its capability of generating an active force is one of the most significant features. In order to study the physiology and disorders related to the skeletal muscle using cells in vitro, the active force should be evaluated, in addition to molecular and cell biological experiments performed. This article reviews an evaluation system for the active tension generated by cultured skeletal muscle cells or tissue-engineered skeletal muscles. First, we focused on experimental models involving a single or several myotubes. Then, we focused on the systems for tissue-engineered skeletal muscles consisting of much larger numbers of myotubes. Such systems can be used to study the physiology of the skeletal muscle, screen drug candidates for skeletal muscle-related disorders, and improve the function of tissue-engineered skeletal muscle.

Evaluation of vertical cell fluidity in a multilayered sheet of skeletal myoblasts.

The procedure for fabricating a multilayered cell sheet has been developed by combining multiple sheets using a thermo-responsive surface and stamp system. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the fluidity of a multilayered sheet of skeletal myoblasts could be estimated as vertical diffusivity and changed upon addition of dermal fibroblasts.