Modeling Patient-Specific Muscular Dystrophy Phenotypes and Therapeutic Responses in Reprogrammed Myotubes Engineered on Micromolded Gelatin Hydrogels.

models of patient-derived muscle allow for more efficient development of genetic medicines for the muscular dystrophies, which often present mutation-specific pathologies. One popular strategy to generate patient-specific myotubes involves reprogramming dermal fibroblasts to a muscle lineage through MyoD induction. However, creating physiologically relevant, reproducible tissues exhibiting multinucleated, aligned myotubes with organized striations is dependent on the introduction of physicochemical cues that mimic the native muscle microenvironment.