Human Neuromuscular Junction on a Chip: Impact of Amniotic Fluid Stem Cell Extracellular Vesicles on Muscle Atrophy and NMJ Integrity

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Martina Gatti
  • Dittlau, Katarina Stoklund
  • Francesca Beretti
  • Laura Yedigaryan
  • Manuela Zavatti
  • Pietro Cortelli
  • Carla Palumbo
  • Emma Bertucci
  • Ludo Van Den Bosch
  • Maurilio Sampaolesi
  • Tullia Maraldi

Neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) are specialized synapses, crucial for the communication between spinal motor neurons (MNs) and skeletal muscle. NMJs become vulnerable in degenerative diseases, such as muscle atrophy, where the crosstalk between the different cell populations fails, and the regenerative ability of the entire tissue is hampered. How skeletal muscle sends retrograde signals to MNs through NMJs represents an intriguing field of research, and the role of oxidative stress and its sources remain poorly understood. Recent works demonstrate the myofiber regeneration potential of stem cells, including amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC), and secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) as cell-free therapy. To study NMJ perturbations during muscle atrophy, we generated an MN/myotube co-culture system through XonaTM microfluidic devices, and muscle atrophy was induced in vitro by Dexamethasone (Dexa). After atrophy induction, we treated muscle and MN compartments with AFSC-derived EVs (AFSC-EVs) to investigate their regenerative and anti-oxidative potential in counteracting NMJ alterations. We found that the presence of EVs reduced morphological and functional in vitro defects induced by Dexa. Interestingly, oxidative stress, occurring in atrophic myotubes and thus involving neurites as well, was prevented by EV treatment. Here, we provided and validated a fluidically isolated system represented by microfluidic devices for studying human MN and myotube interactions in healthy and Dexa-induced atrophic conditions—allowing the isolation of subcellular compartments for region-specific analyses—and demonstrated the efficacy of AFSC-EVs in counteracting NMJ perturbations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4944
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume24
Issue number5
ISSN1661-6596
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • amniotic fluid stem cells, extracellular vesicles, muscle atrophy, neuromuscular junction, oxidative stress

ID: 368622686