Neural agrin plays a pleiotropic role in skeletal muscle innervation and maturation, but its specific effects on the contractile function of aneural engineered muscle remain unknown. In this study, neonatal rat skeletal myoblasts cultured within 3-dimensional engineered muscle tissue constructs were treated with 10 nM soluble recombinant miniagrin and assessed using histological, biochemical, and functional assays. Depending on the treatment duration and onset time relative to the stage of myogenic differentiation, miniagrin was found to induce up to 1.7-fold increase in twitch and tetanus force amplitude. This effect was associated with the 2.3-fold up-regulation of dystrophin gene expression at 6 d after agrin removal and enhanced ACh receptor (AChR) cluster formation, but no change in cell number, expression of muscle myosin, or important aspects of intracellular Ca 2+ handling. In muscle constructs with endogenous ACh levels suppressed by the application of α-NETA, miniagrin increased AChR clustering and twitch force amplitude but failed to improve intracellular Ca 2+ handling and increase tetanus-to-twitch ratio. Overall, our studies suggest that besides its synaptogenic function that could promote integration of engineered muscle constructs in vivo , neural agrin can directly promote the contractile function of aneural engineered muscle via mechanisms distinct from those involving endogenous ACh.—Bian, W., Bursac, N. Soluble miniagrin enhances contractile function of engineered skeletal muscle. synaptogenesis myogenesis twitch force acetylcholine receptors Footnotes This article includes supplemental data. Please visit http://www.fasebj.org to obtain this information. Received May 19, 2011. Accepted October 24, 2011. © FASEB Facebook Google+ LinkedIn Mendeley Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter What's this? « Previous | Next Article » Table of Contents This Article Published online before print November 10, 2011 , doi: 10.1096/fj.11-187575 February 2012 The FASEB Journal vol. 26 no. 2 955-965 » Abstract Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: fj.11-187575v1 fj.11-187575v2 26/2/955 most recent Classifications Research Communications Services Email this article to a colleague Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Download to citation manager Citing Articles Load citing article information Google Scholar Articles by Bian, W. Articles by Bursac, N. PubMed PubMed citation Articles by Bian, W. Articles by Bursac, N. Related Content Load related web page information Sharing Email this article to a colleague Facebook Google+ LinkedIn Mendeley Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter What's this? Current Issue February 2012, 26 (2) Alert me to new issues of The FASEB Journal Submit Manuscripts Online Press Room Information for Authors Information for Reviewers Editorial Board Editorial Policies Subscriptions Librarian's Resource Activate Online View Collected Papers Breakthroughs in Bioscience Advertising Copyright Permissions Feedback Subscribe to RSS FASEB Publication Services Go to FASEB Online Copyright © 2012 by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Print ISSN: 0892-6638 Online ISSN: 1530-6860 var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-23107677-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();

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