Chronic, Low-Frequency Electrical Pulse Stimulation of Primary Human Skeletal Muscle Cells.

Electrical pulse stimulation (EPS) represents a useful in vitro model of exercise in skeletal muscle cells. By modifying stimulation patterns, e.g., voltage, frequency, pulse duration, and total stimulation time, it is possible to generate models that simulate different types of in vivo exercise under controlled conditions. Currently, there is a wide variability among existing protocols. Here, we describe a chronic, low-frequency protocol for EPS of human myotubes in 6-well plates using single bipolar pulses of 2 ms, 1 Hz at 10 V for 24 h.