Tension and mechanical properties of muscle tissue are tightly related to proper skeletal muscle function, which makes experimental access to the biomechanics of muscle tissue formation a key requirement to advance our understanding of muscle function and development. Recently developed elastic in vitro culture chambers allow for raising 3D muscle tissue under controlled conditions and to measure global tissue force generation. However, these chambers are inherently incompatible with high resolution microscopy limiting their usability to global force measurements, and preventing the exploitation of modern fluorescence based investigation methods for live and dynamic measurements. Here we present a new chamber design pairing global force measurements, quantified from post deflection, with local tension measurements obtained from elastic hydrogel beads embedded in muscle tissue. High resolution 3D video microscopy of engineered muscle formation, enabled by the new chamber, shows an early mechanical tissue homeostasis that remains stable in spite of continued myotube maturation.

中文翻译：

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仿生骨骼肌组织中的全局和局部张力测量揭示了早期的机械稳态

肌肉组织的张力和机械特性与适当的骨骼肌功能密切相关，这使得通过实验获得肌肉组织形成的生物力学成为推进我们对肌肉功能和发育理解的关键要求。最近开发的弹性体外培养室允许在受控条件下培养 3D 肌肉组织并测量全球组织力的产生。然而，这些腔室本质上与高分辨率显微镜不兼容，从而限制了它们对全局力测量的可用性，并阻止了利用现代基于荧光的调查方法进行实时和动态测量。在这里，我们提出了一种新的腔室设计配对全局力测量，从后偏转量化，从嵌入肌肉组织的弹性水凝胶珠获得的局部张力测量。由新腔室启用的工程肌肉形成的高分辨率 3D 视频显微镜显示，尽管肌管持续成熟，但早期的机械组织稳态仍保持稳定。