Hearing loss, affecting individuals of all ages, can impair education, social function, and quality of life. Current treatments, such as hearing aids and implants, aim to mitigate these effects but often fall short in addressing the critical issue of accurately pinpointing sound sources. We report an intelligent hearing system inspired by the human auditory system: asymmetric well-aligned piezoelectric nanofibers combined with neural networks to mimic natural auditory processes. Piezoelectric nanofibers with spirally varying lengths and directions transmit and convert acoustic sound into mechanoelectrical signals, mimicking the complex cochlear dynamics. These signals are then encoded by digital neural networks, enabling accurate sound direction recognition. This intelligent hearing system surpasses human directional hearing, accurately recognizing sound directions horizontally and vertically. The advancement represents a substantial stride toward next-generation artificial hearing, harmonizing transduction and perception with a nature-inspired design. It promises for applications in hearing aids, wearable devices, and implants, offering enhanced auditory experiences for those with hearing impairments.

Skeletal muscle, which comprises a significant portion of the body, is responsible for vital functions such as movement, metabolism, and overall health. However, severe injuries often result in volumetric muscle loss (VML) and compromise the regenerative capacity of the muscle. Tissue-engineered muscles offer a potential solution to address lost or damaged muscle tissue, thereby restoring muscle function and improving patients’ quality of life. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have emerged as a valuable cell source for muscle tissue engineering due to their pluripotency and self-renewal capacity, enabling the construction of tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles with applications in transplantation, disease modelling, and bio-hybrid robots. Next-generation iPSC-based models have the potential to revolutionize drug discovery by offering personalized muscle cells for testing, reducing reliance on animal models. This review provides a comprehensive overview of iPSCs in tissue-engineered artificial skeletal muscles, highlighting the advancements, applications, advantages, and challenges for clinical translation. We also discussed overcoming limitations and considerations in differentiation protocols, characterization methods, large-scale production, and translational regulations. By tackling these challenges, iPSCs can unlock transformative advancements in muscle tissue engineering and therapeutic interventions for the future.

A model is proposed to predict the compressive moduli of sponge-reinforced hydrogel composites validated by experiments and numerical simulations.

Tissue engineering of the esophagus has been limited by stent dependance and poor muscle regeneration. Here we report an integrated strategy to engineer a 2.5-cm esophageal segment by microinjecting autologous pericyte-like myogenic precursors and fibroblasts in a decellularized porcine scaffold to repair circumferential defects in 10-kg minipigs ( n = 8), modeling pediatric use. Bioreactor maturation induced a proangiogenic phenotype, with in vivo support from biodegradable intraluminal stents and a vascularizing pleural wrap. This coordinated approach yielded safe and effective esophageal conduits; oral feeding supported normal growth, morbidity resembled that of clinical esophageal replacement and was endoscopically manageable, and 63% (5/8) survived to the 6-month endpoint. Comprehensive multimodal analyses demonstrated progressive recapitulation of native architecture, with increasing neuromuscular regeneration and vascularization, correlating with functional recovery, absence of symptomatic stricture and the presence of secondary peristalsis by 6 months. These results demonstrate that the combination of complementary regenerative, conditioning and surgical strategies enables a functionally integrated, contractile esophageal graft with ongoing structural maturation without immunosuppression.

Skeletal muscle stem cells, also known as satellite cells, have remarkable self-renewal abilities in response to muscle injury, playing a vital role in muscle regeneration and repair. However, disruptions in the satellite cell niche caused by severe trauma or surgery can hinder natural regeneration. Additionally, challenges such as limited availability of human donors and primary cells, difficulties in scaling satellite cell expansion, and storage issues present significant barriers. Therefore, developing engineered platforms that create optimized micro-niche environments to support muscle stem cells and promote muscle cell activity is crucial. Using non-direct 3D printing-guided phase separation technology and skeletal muscle extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel, we developed a digitally programmable, user-friendly, customizable, and biofunctional 3D platform that mimics the hierarchical porous structure and microenvironment of natural ECM. Notably, the synergistic combination of natural and synthetic matrices improves scalable satellite cell growth, supports autonomous myotube contraction, and accelerates in vivo myofiber and blood vessel formation, paving the way for increased production of myogenic precursors, cell therapies, and treatments for traumatic muscle injuries.