Sci Rep: A method for direct measurement of skeletal muscle myotube strength

Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a method to characterize the forces generated by contracting myotubes, the precursors of skeletal muscle fibers, combining electrical stimulation and analysis of wrinkles on silicone substrates

Muscle atrophy, the degeneration of muscle tissue, can have devastating effects on quality of life and is known to affect longevity

But the reality is that treatments for muscle wasting are still very limited

Now, a research team led by Associate Professor Yasuko Mabe at Tokyo City University has come up with a simple way to directly measure the strength of myotubes

Using known atrophic (weaker) and hypertrophic (stronger) myotubes, they found that their new "strength index" was more sensitive to muscle strength than existing measures such as muscle mass and myosin heavy chain (MHC) ) protein expression

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Scientific Research Assistance Fund (B) (grant number JP 17H02159) in the field of sports science, the Tokyo Medical University Innovative Research Project Strategic Research Fund, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Advanced Research Fund (R2- 2) support

article title

Establishment of a system evaluating the contractile force of electrically stimulated myotubes from wrinkles formed on elastic substrate