Measuring the X-MET’s maximum power: a preliminary study

The measurement of the mechanical properties is acrucial point for new engineered muscle tissues. The final aim isto implant these tissues to substitute or restore the functionalityof impaired muscles, so that functional properties as close aspossible to the healthy native muscles are required. We developedan engineered skeletal muscle tissue, X-MET, whose strong pointis to be created without any endogenous component. Thisconstruct is able to contract spontaneously as well as to respondto electrical stimulation. In this work, we developed anexperimental system to measure for the first time, the powerdeveloped by the X-MET. The power was measured by applyingthe isovelocity contraction technique. This technique has neverbeen applied on muscle engineered tissues so far, so the aim ofthis work was to find out the optimal stimulation parameters.Once determined the range of displacement and velocity ofshortening for which the X-MET was able to develop power, weproceeded looking at the optimal parameters allowing theproduction of its maximum power. Preliminary tests showed thatthe X-MET generates the optimal power when stimulated toshorten 3% of its ideal length at a speed of 0.2 L0/s.