Muscles play an important part in all fundamental activities of the human body such as locomotion, eating, digesting, and beating of the heart. In nature, various muscle types contribute to a multitude of physiological processes. Muscle is characterized by its highly specialized structure and function which enables it to accomplish both powerful and delicate tasks. However, it is also the site of disease such as cardiac infarction, diabetes, and myopathy. Thus, the development of engineered muscle tissues may be useful not only for regenerative medicine but also for understanding muscle biology. Muscle tissue engineering is a major scientific challenge involving multi-disciplinary fields. Moreover, engineered muscle tissues are of great importance for the creation of drug screening devices or power sources in biorobotics. This chapter first focuses on the fundamental biology of muscle cells and tissues with regard to their structures and physiological functions, then outlines strategic approaches to muscle tissue engineering, and lastly introduces some seminal works from recent biodevice development consistent with muscle tissue engineering.
