Chapter 9 **Role of Stem Cells and Extracellular Matrix in the Regeneration of Skeletal Muscle 155**

Andrew Dunn, Madison Marcinczyk, Muhamed Talovic, Krishna Patel, Gabriel Haas and Koyal Garg

### Chapter 10 **Skeletal Muscle as a Therapeutic Target for Natural Products to Reverse Metabolic Syndrome 175** Sithandiwe Eunice Mazibuko-Mbeje, Phiwayinkosi V. Dludla,

Bongani B. Nkambule, Nnini Obonye and Johan Louw

### **Section 5 The Characteristics of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells 207**

### Chapter 11 **Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell 209** Ning Zhou, Shaunrick Stoll, Christiana Leimena and Hongyu Qiu

Chapter 12 **The Role of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in the Physiology and Pathophysiology of Blood Vessels 229** Lucie Bacakova, Martina Travnickova, Elena Filova, Roman Matějka, Jana Stepanovska, Jana Musilkova, Jana Zarubova and Martin Molitor

#### Chapter 13 **The Dichotomy of Vascular Smooth Muscle Differentiation/De-Differentiation in Health and Disease 259** Mariana di Luca, Roya Hakimjavadi, Denise Burtenshaw, Emma Fitzpatrick, Pattie Mathiue, Catriona Lally, Eileen M Redmond and Paul A Cahill

### **Section 6 Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells and Tissue Engineering 287**

Chapter 14 **Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells (VSMCs) in Blood Vessel Tissue Engineering: The Use of Differentiated Cells or Stem Cells as VSMC Precursors 289** Lucie Bacakova, Martina Travnickova, Elena Filova, Roman Matejka, Jana Stepanovska, Jana Musilkova, Jana Zarubova and Martin Molitor

	- **Section 7 Cardiac Myocytes 337**

**Section 4 Therapeutic Approaches for Muscular Disorder 115**

Ken'ichiro Nogami, Matthias Blanc, Fusako Takemura, Shin'ichi

Iván Toral-Ojeda, Garazi Aldanondo, Jaione Lasa-Elgarresta, Haizpea Lasa-Fernandez, Camila Vesga-Castro, Vincent Mouly, Adolfo López de Munain and Ainara Vallejo-Illarramendi

Andrew Dunn, Madison Marcinczyk, Muhamed Talovic, Krishna

Sithandiwe Eunice Mazibuko-Mbeje, Phiwayinkosi V. Dludla, Bongani B. Nkambule, Nnini Obonye and Johan Louw

Ning Zhou, Shaunrick Stoll, Christiana Leimena and Hongyu Qiu

Lucie Bacakova, Martina Travnickova, Elena Filova, Roman Matějka, Jana Stepanovska, Jana Musilkova, Jana Zarubova and Martin

Mariana di Luca, Roya Hakimjavadi, Denise Burtenshaw, Emma Fitzpatrick, Pattie Mathiue, Catriona Lally, Eileen M Redmond and

Chapter 8 **A Novel Functional In Vitro Model that Recapitulates Human**

Chapter 9 **Role of Stem Cells and Extracellular Matrix in the Regeneration**

Chapter 10 **Skeletal Muscle as a Therapeutic Target for Natural Products to**

**Section 5 The Characteristics of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells 207**

Chapter 12 **The Role of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in the Physiology and Pathophysiology of Blood Vessels 229**

Chapter 13 **The Dichotomy of Vascular Smooth Muscle Differentiation/De-**

**Differentiation in Health and Disease 259**

Chapter 7 **Making Skeletal Muscle from Human Pluripotent**

Takeda and Yuko Miyagoe-Suzuki

**Stem Cells 117**

**VI** Contents

**Muscle Disorders 133**

**of Skeletal Muscle 155**

Chapter 11 **Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell 209**

Molitor

Paul A Cahill

Patel, Gabriel Haas and Koyal Garg

**Reverse Metabolic Syndrome 175**

Chapter 16 **Morphology of Right Atrium Myocytes 339** Marina L. Bugrova

Preface

biology and regenerative medicine.

Skeletal muscle tissue accounts for almost half of the human body mass. Muscle contractions of the skeletal muscle enable the body to move and maintain homeostasis. Human health is markedly affected by any deterioration in the material, metabolic and contractile properties of skeletal muscle. Muscle wasting and weakness such as cachexia, atrophy and sarcopenia are characterized by marked decreases in the protein content, myonuclear number, muscle fiber size and muscle strength. To attenuate various forms of muscle wasting, many re‐ searchers have investigated exercise-based, supplemental and pharmacological approaches. Our circulatory system is modulated by the heart, lungs and vasculature. These components serve crucial roles in controlling blood and lymph flow and in the delivery of gases, hor‐ mones and essential nutrients (i.e. glucose, fat, or amino acids). Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are the most numerous cell types in blood vessels, where they are located in the medial layer of the vascular wall. VSMCs serve critical regulatory roles in the blood ves‐ sels, particularly for vasoconstriction, vasodilatation and synthesis of vascular extracellular matrix. Vascular remodeling is adaptive alternating process of vascular wall architecture and is caused by various stimuli such as vascular injury, oxidative stress and hemodynamic stress. VSMCs and endothelial cells (ECs) compose the arteries and have essential roles in vascular remodeling in conjunction with inflammatory cells. During vascular remodeling, the infiltration of macrophages and monocytes, synthetic or contractile phenotypic changes

of VSMCs and the EC dysfunction promote vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis.

In order to complete tissue regeneration, various cells (neuronal, skeletal, and smooth) inter‐ act coordinately with each other. This book, *Muscle Cell and Tissue - Current Status of Research Field*, deals with current progress and perspectives in a variety of topics on the skeletal and smooth muscle, stem cells, regeneration, disease or therapeutics. Novel applications for cell and tissue engineering including cell therapy, tissue models and disease pathology model‐ ing are introduced. This book also deals with the differentiation/de-differentiation process of vascular smooth muscle cells in health and disease. Furthermore, natural products to re‐ verse metabolic syndromes are descriptively reviewed. These chapters can be interesting for graduate students, teachers, physicians, executives and researchers in the field of molecular

**Professor Kunihiro Sakuma, PhD**

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Institute for Liberal Arts
