Voluntary Movement Controlled by the Surface EMG Signal for Tissue-Engineered Skeletal Muscle on a Gripping Tool

• Published in: Tissue engineering. Part A Vol. 19; no. 15-16; pp. 1695 - 1703
• Main Authors: Kabumoto, Ken-ichiro, Hoshino, Takayuki, Akiyama, Yoshitake, Morishima, Keisuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Mary Ann Liebert, Inc 01.08.2013
• Subjects: Animals; Cells, Cultured; Electromyography - methods; Electrophysiology; Motor ability; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Muscular system; Myoblasts - cytology; Myoblasts - metabolism; Original; Original Articles; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Signal transduction; Skeletal system; Surface tension; Tissue Engineering - methods
• ISSN: 1937-3341; 1937-335X; 1937-335X
• DOI: 10.1089/ten.tea.2012.0421

We have developed a living prosthesis consisting of a living muscle-powered device, which is controlled by neuronal signals to recover some of the functions of a lost extremity. A tissue-engineered skeletal muscle was fabricated with two anchorage points from a primary rat myoblast cultured in a collagen Matrigel mixed gel. Differentiation to the skeletal muscle was confirmed in the tissue-engineered skeletal muscle, and the contraction force increased with increasing frequency of electric stimulation. Then, the tissue-engineered skeletal muscle was assembled into a gripper-type microhand. The tissue-engineered skeletal muscle of the microhand was stimulated electrically, which was then followed by the voluntary movement of the subject's hand. The signal of the surface electromyogram from a subject was processed to mimic the firing spikes of a neuromuscular junction to control the contraction of the tissue-engineered skeletal muscle. The tele-operation of the microhand was demonstrated by optical microscope observations.