Advances in skeletal muscle tissue engineering.

Skeletal muscle tissue engineering is a promising interdisciplinary specialty which aims at the reconstruction of skeletal muscle loss caused by traumatic injury congenital defects or tumor ablations. Due to the difficulty in procuring donor tissue, the possibilities for alternative treatment like autologous grafting (e.g. muscle flaps) are limited. This process also presents consistent problems with donor-site morbidity. Skeletal muscle tissue engineering tries to overcome this problem by generating new, functional muscle tissue from autologous precursor cells (stem cells). Multiple stem cells from different sources can be utilized for restoration of differentiated skeletal muscle tissue using tissue engineering principles. After 15 years of intensive research in this emerging field, for the first time, solutions using different strategies (e.g. embryonic stem cells, arterio-venous (AV) loop models, etc.) are being presented to resolve problems like vascularisation of tissue engineered constructs. This article reviews recent findings in skeletal muscle tissue engineering and outlines its relevance to clinical applications in reconstructive surgery.