17 – Skeletal muscle tissue engineering

: Engineering functional skeletal muscle tissue is still a challenge, in particular in clinically relevant sizes. The development of a suitable scaffold for muscle tissue engineering in vivo remains a major obstacle. Materials and different architectures used for engineering skeletal muscle are presented here and experiences with electrospun scaffolds are highlighted. Characteristic demands of skeletal muscle tissue on a suitable scaffold including the necessary vascularization of implanted scaffolds and potential factors for myogenic differentiation are described and critically discussed. Finally, the options for future developments in the field of skeletal muscle tissue engineering are presented.