A challenge to construct functional tissue engineered skeletal muscle

In order to construct functional skeletal muscle in vitro for tissue engineering, the micro architecture including microcirculation, neuromuscular junctions, and cell alignment has to be constructed. Thus it has been said that tissue engineered skeletal muscle will not be realized until two or three decades in the future. Skeletal muscle, however, possesses the ability to regenerate partial defects even in adult animals, and this regenerative activity can be a blue print for skeletal muscle tissue engineering. In the present paper, we describe the principle of skeletal muscle regeneration, and then describe the challenges to achieve skeletal muscle tissue engineering.