Patent ID: 8735116

Claim:
A method for making a model of aligned, contracting muscle tissue, comprising: seeding anchorage-dependent cells onto a support to form a cell spot, the cells having a range of concentration of from about 1×10 5 to about 1×10 6 cells per milliliter of culture medium, with the volume of each spot being within a range of about 20 μl to about 50 μl; incubating the cells for an initial period of time to allow the cells to partially attach to the support; removing any cells that have not partially attached to the support after the initial period of time of incubation; adding growth culture medium to the support after removing the unattached cells such that the partially attached cells proliferate about a periphery of the cell spot and differentiate away from the center of the cell spot, wherein the amount of growth culture medium added is a volume sufficient to enable the partially attached cells to proliferate undisturbed and without culture medium refresh for a period of time of at least seven days; and further incubating the cells to form the model of muscle tissue.