An equibiaxial strain system for cultured cells.
Lee, Ann A., Tammo Delhaas, Lewis K. Waldman, Deidre A. Mackenna,
Francisco J. Villarreal, and Andrew D. McCulloch.
Departments of Bioengineering and Medicine[acute]a, University of
California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA; La Jolla Cancer Research
Foundation, La Jolla, CA; on leave from Wilhelmina Children's
Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands
APStracts 3:0182C, 1996.
We developed a device that applies homogeneous equibiaxial strains of
0 - 10% to a cell culture substrate and quantitatively verified
transmission of substrate deformation to cultured cardiac cells.
Clamped elastic membranes in both single-well and multiwell versions
of the device are uniformly stretched by indentation with a plastic
ring, resulting in strain that is directly proportional to the
pitch:radius ratio. Two-dimensional deformations were measured by
tracking fluorescent microspheres attached to the substrate and to
cultured adult rat cardiac fibroblasts. For nominal stretches up to
18%, strains along circumferential and radial axes were equal in
magnitude and homogeneously distributed with negligible shear. For 5%
stretch, circumferential and radial strains in the substrate were
0.046 0.005 and 0.048 0.004 (ns), respectively, and shear strain was
0.001 0.003 (ns). Calibration of both single-well and multiwell
permits strain selection by device rotation. The reproducible
application and quantification of homogeneous equibiaxial strain in
cultured cells provides a quantitative approach for correlating
mechanical stimuli to cellular transduction mechanisms.
Received 4 March 1996; accepted in final form 1 May 1996.
APS Manuscript Number C125-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 17 June 96