Abstract
The use of magnetic nanoparticles is advantageous in manipulating targets remotely. Magnetic labeling of target cells with magnetic nanoparticle enables us to manipulate and control cells by applying an external magnetic field. We have developed functional magnetite (Fe_3O_4) nanoparticles to label target cell magnetically, and applied the functional magnetite nanoparticles to tissue engineering process including cell isolation (magnetic cell sorting), gene transfer (magnetofection), magnetic cell patterning and three-dimensional tissue construction. We have thus developed a novel methodology designated "magnetic force-based tissue engineering (Mag-TE)". In particular, forming three-dimensional tissue constructs is important in tissue engineering. In the Mag-TE method, target cells are labeled with magnetite cationic liposomes (MCLs) and magnetically accumulated to form three-dimensional tissue-like structures. In this talk, I am going to focus on resent results of skeletal muscle tissue engineering using MCLs. We have succeeded to fabricate electrically excitable tissue-engineered skeletal muscle constructs in vitro by using the Mag-TE technique.
