Chapter 8: Role of Topographic Cues in Engineering the Muscle Niche

Cells are exquisitely receptive to the physical cues present within their native microenvironment. Manipulation of substrate topography is therefore a simple strategy to promote the development of cells in vitro toward a phenotype that is more representative of their in vivo counterparts. In the cases of cardiac and skeletal muscle, substrate topographies have been used to promote uniaxial alignment, myofibrillar development, and cytoskeletal organization in cultured cells for downstream applications in basic biological studies, disease modelling, and drug screening. In this chapter, we review the advantages conferred on muscle cultures by topographic patterns, discuss methods for producing patterns of different dimensions, and provide a perspective on the role these technologies could play in enhancing the predictive power of next generation preclinical assays.