Fig. 9
Transplantation of human endothelialized skeletal muscle into traumatically injured muscle. Human endothelialized skeletal muscle bundles were composed of primary human cells. a Representative confocal microscopy images of perfused vasculature in the region of regeneration adjacent to endothelialized muscle formed from randomly oriented or aligned scaffolds are shown. Endothelial cells are identified by CD31 (red) expression. Perfused vessels are indicated by co-expression of CD31 (red) and fluorescently labeled isolectin (turquois). b Perfused vessel density adjacent to the site of engineered muscle transplantation (n = 3). c Representative image of donor-derived myofibers in the region of regeneration adjacent to endothelialized muscle formed from randomly oriented or aligned scaffolds. Donor-derived myofibers are identified by the dual co-expression of human nuclear antigen (HNA, yellow) and myosin heavy chain (MHC, red). Arrows denote native myofibers and arrowheads denote donor-derived myofibers. d The density of donor-derived (HNA+/MHC+) myofibers in the region of regeneration is shown (n = 6). For indicated comparisons: p ≤ 0.05 (*), p ≤ 0.01 (**). Error bars represent standard deviation. Scale bars denote 100 μm (a); 150 μm (c)
