OBJECTIVE Because of its special biological characteristics, myoblast might play a role in gene delivery and cell-to-biomaterial interactions. In this paper, the biological features of myoblast and its application on gene therapy and tissue engineering was discussed. METHODS Documents about proliferation and differentiation of myoblast were reviewed in details. The prospects of its application on gene therapy and tissue engineering were also presented. RESULTS Myoblast was important in muscle regeneration. The activation of myoblast to proliferate and differentiate was the very beginning of regeneration after injury. The cultured myoblast had high potential to proliferate, it was ready to fuse with each other and to form myotube (the special behavior of myoblast differentiation). Myoblast transplantation had been studied as a possible treatment for inherited myopathies, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The transplanted myoblast could fuse with host myofibers, so the delivered target gene integrated into host. Several myoblast-mediated gene delivery system had been established, including the gene delivery of human factor IX (hFIX), erythropoietin (EPO) and clony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1). Results from animal experiments demonstrated that myoblast-mediated gene delivery could be used as gene therapy for some inherited diseases. And recently, some authors have shown great interest in the interaction between myoblast and type I collagen gels. It was found that myoblast could keep on proliferating and differentiating in collagen gels and could form discoid, tubular materials. CONCLUSION Myoblast has great importance in gene therapy and tissue engineering. It is suggested that more efforts should be made in this field.
OBJECTIVE: To observe the proliferation and differentiation properties of primary human embryonic skeletal myoblasts cultured in vitro. METHODS: The skeletal muscle samples were obtained from 20 to 25-week abortion fetus, the family history of inherited myopathies of parental generation was negative. With a modified method of Blau, the muscle sample was digested with trypsin and collagenase. The isolated cell suspension was a mixture of myoblasts and fibroblasts, the latter was removed by repeated attachment to culture dishes. The morphological, immunohistochemical observation, the proliferation and differentiation of primary myoblasts were studied. RESULTS: The isolated myoblasts were spherical in cell suspension and spindle-like after attached to culture dishes. The myosin specialized immunohistochemical staining was bly positive. A large quantity of skeletal muscle specialized creatine kinase (CK-MM) was synthesized in cultured myoblasts. Additionally, while the cell density of myoblasts increased, the monocyte myoblasts would fused to form multinucleated myotube. All those indicated that the cultured cells were myoblasts. Primary myoblasts proliferated quickly, the doubling time, measured in growth curve, was 4.8 days. CONCLUSION: A large number of myoblasts can be available with digestion and repeated attachment method. The cultured cells can be proved as myoblasts by morphological and immunohistochemical detection. The cultured myoblasts have good ability of proliferation and differentiation.