Advanced models of human skeletal muscle differentiation, development and disease: Three- dimensional cultures, organoids and beyond

Advanced in vitro models of human skeletal muscle tissue are increasingly needed to model complex developmental dy-namics and disease mechanisms not recapitulated in animal models or in conventional monolayer cell cultures. There has been impressive progress towards creating such models by using tissue engineering approaches to recapitulate a range of physical and biochemical components of native human skel-etal muscle tissue. In this review, we discuss recent studies focussed on developing complex in vitro models of human skeletal muscle beyond monolayer cell cultures, involving skeletal myogenic differentiation from human primary myo-blasts or pluripotent stem cells, often in the presence of structural scaffolding support. We conclude with our outlook on the future of advanced skeletal muscle three-dimensional cul-tures (e.g. organoids and biofabrication) to produce physio-logically and clinically relevant platforms for disease modelling and therapy development in musculoskeletal and neuromus-cular disorders.

Automated summary

Researchers have made significant progress in creating advanced in vitro models of human skeletal muscle tissue using tissue engineering approaches to mimic the physical and biochemical components of native muscle tissue. Future directions include utilizing three-dimensional cultures such as organoids and biofabrication to develop platforms that are physiologically and clinically relevant for disease modeling and therapy development.