Behavior of cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle cells on different extracellular matrix components - Relevance for cardiac tissue engineering

Myocardial cell transplantation in patients with heart failure is emerging as a potential therapeutic option to augment the function of remaining myocytes. Nevertheless, further investigations on basic issues such as ideal cell type continue to be evaluated. Therefore, the aim of our studies was to compare the performance of skeletal muscle cells and cardiomyocytes with respect to their proliferation rate and viability on different extracellular matrix components (EMCs). Rat cardiomyocytes (RCM) and rat skeletal muscle cells (RSMC) were cultured on EMCs such as collagen type I, type IV, laminin, and fibronectin. The components were used as "single coating" as well as "double coating." Proliferation rates were determined by proliferation assays on days 1, 2, 4, and 8 after inoculation of the cells. The most essential result is that collagen type I enhances the proliferation rate of RSMC but decreases the proliferation of RCM significantly. This effect is independent of the second EMC used for the double-coating studies. Other EMCs also influence cellular behavior, whereas the sequence of the EMCs is essential. Results obtained in our studies reveal the significant different proliferation behavior of RCM and RSMC under identical conditions. As skeletal muscle cells are also used in heart tissue engineering models, these results are essential and should be investigated in further studies to prove the applicability of skeletal muscle cells for heart tissue engineering purposes.