Designed for Metabolically Active Skeletal Muscle

Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Media is purpose-built for researchers working with 3D engineered muscle tissues (EMTs) using primary or iPSC-derived human myoblasts. The formulation supports sustained contractile function, enabling accurate metabolic phenotyping in drug discovery and disease modeling workflows.

Unlike standard 2D culture media that rely on GLUT1-dependent glucose uptake, Metabolic Media promotes GLUT4 expression, the primary transporter in physiological skeletal muscle, enabling more human-relevant metabolic readouts.

• Reproducible Results

  Lot-to-lot consistency ensures experiments are comparable across time and between labs, reducing variability at the media level.

• Physiological Relevance

  Supports GLUT4-driven glucose uptake and robust AKT signaling — key hallmarks of insulin-sensitive muscle tissue in vivo.

• Serum-Free Formulation

  Serum-free formula reduces lot-to-lot variability and supports reproducible conditions for human-relevant cell models.

• Designed for Metabolic Assays

  The insulin-free formula gives researchers full control over insulin conditions, enabling precise dose-response studies and flexible metabolic assessments.

 Performance Validated Across Key Assays

Curi Bio Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Media supports a broad range of research applications requiring physiologically active human muscle models.

Culturing EMTs in Metabolic Media with a High-to-Low Insulin Switch at Day 10 Drives Elevated Contractile Force. Twitch and tetanic forces for low and high-to-low insulin media formulations (mean ± SD; n=3).

Metabolic Media with High-to-Low Insulin Switch Restores Robust Insulin Sensitivity. Representative western blot after 100 nM insulin stimulation with quantified pAKT and GLUT4 levels.

EMTs Capture Metabolic Responses to Exercise and Nutrient Stress. Glycogen and lactate concentrations are modulated in response to exercise, glucose starvation, insulin stimulation, and glucose reintroduction.

Metabolic Media Enables Physiological Glucose Transport. EMTs loaded with 2-DG exhibited a robust two-fold increase in glucose transport upon insulin stimulation, confirming sustained insulin sensitivity and translational relevance of tissues maintained in our Metabolic Media (**p<0.01)

Read the App Note

3D Skeletal Muscle Modeling with Primary Human Cells - Applications in Metabolic Regulation and Muscle Atrophy

Read the Publication

Functionally Mature Bioengineered Human Skeletal Muscle Tissues Capture Essential Aspects of Glucose Metabolism