American Association of Plastic Surgeons

AAPS Home AAPS Home Past & Future Meetings Past & Future Meetings
Facebook   Instagram   Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

Back to 2024 Abstracts


Highly Porous Foam Scaffolds Imprinted With Human IPSCs Regenerate Skeletal Muscle And Improve Function Following Volumetric Muscle Loss
Jessica Mroueh, MD1, Yori Endo, MD1, Yannis Djeffal, MD-PhD1, Alejandra Rodríguez-delaRosa, PhD2, Ali Tamayol, PhD3, Olivier Pourquié, PhD2, Indranil Sinha, MD1;
1Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 3University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA

PURPOSE- Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is a composite loss of skeletal muscle tissue that heals with minimal muscle regeneration. Our present study evaluates a novel, highly porous, 3D-bioprinted scaffold containing human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived myogenic precursor cells (hiPSC-MPCs) for VML treatment in a murine model.
METHODS- To create VML injury, a 4 mm punch biopsy of the gastrocnemius muscle was created in 10-week-old, immunocompromised mice (Rag knockout). Mice were assigned into one of four groups: Sham, VML-only, VML+gelatin-methacryloyl (GelMA scaffold), or VML+hiPSC-MPCs (embedded in 3D scaffold). HiPSCs were derived by differentiating NCRM1 iPS cells for 20-30 days. The 3D scaffolds were implanted onto the wounded muscles and secured with photo-crosslinking.
RESULTS- 4-week post-VML injury, fluorescent imaging of injured muscles demonstrated iPSCs within the scaffold and identified newly regenerated muscle tissue in the VML+hiPSC-MPCs group. This group also showed significant reduction in % fibrosis area on gross imaging compared to the acellular-GelMA group (p<0.0001) and VML-untreated group (p<0.05). 8-week post-injury, imaging demonstrated successful integration of hiPSC-MPCs into murine muscle. Functional strength assessment of the posterior compartment of the leg demonstrated an increase in in situ twitch and tetanic force in the hiPSC-MPCs-treated group compared to other groups (p<0.02).
CONCLUSIONS- Our results demonstrate successful integration and de novo muscle formation upon in vivo implantation of hiPSC-MPC-derived muscle scaffold in a mouse gastrocnemius model of VML injury.

Back to 2024 Abstracts