Abstract: What Factors Contribute to the Academic Productivity of Plastic Surgeons?

INTRODUCTION: Skeletal muscle loss can result from trauma or oncologic resection, leading to severe cosmetic and functional deficits. Muscle derived stem cells (MDSCs) can be isolated by using a serial preplating technique and have inherent myogenic potential. Since their identification, previous research on MDSCs has mostly focused on ex-vivo gene therapy applications aimed at treating muscular dystrophy, and little is known about the optimal population for skeletal muscle tissue engineering. 3 The aim of this study is to determine which preplate population is better suited for muscle regeneration and optimize the in vitro conditions for creating an implantable skeletal muscle construct.