The Fourth Route Beyond the Polygon: Cell Fusion as a Biological Mechanism for Interface Elimination in 3D Woven Tissue Constructs

Abstract

We propose a fourth route to polygon transcendence in tissue engineering: weaving living muscle fibers (Composite Living Fibers, CLFs) and exploiting natural myoblast membrane fusion (Myomaker/Myomerger) to dissolve inter-fiber interfaces, producing scaffold-free continuous tissue. This route is the biological analog of Kawasaki's photopolymerization approach: where liquid resin mixes and cures to eliminate interfaces, our living cell fibers fuse to eliminate interfaces naturally. The fourth route requires no foreign scaffold—the cells themselves are both fiber and matrix. Implications for cardiac muscle regeneration via spiral weaving of cardiomyocytes are discussed.