Abstract
ABSTRACTCells respond to mechanical cues from their environment through a process of mechanosensing and mechanotransduction. Cell stretching devices are important tools to study the molecular pathways responsible for cellular responses to mechanobiological processes. We describe the development and testing of a uniaxial cell stretcher that has applications for microscopic as well as biochemical analyses. By combining simple fabrication techniques with adjustable control parameters, the stretcher is designed to fit a variety of experimental needs. The stretcher can be used for static and cyclic stretching. As a proof of principle, we visualize stretch induced deformation of cell nuclei via incremental static stretch, and changes in IEX1 expression via cyclic stretching. This stretcher is easily modified to meet experimental needs, inexpensive to build, and should be readily accessible for most laboratories with access to 3D printing.
Highlights
Cell biology has historically focused on chemical signaling as the way in which cells interact with their environment
Stretcher frame The frame of the stretcher was designed to fit into the stage of the Nikon A1R confocal microscope. [The design has been successfully modified to fit the stage of a Zeiss LSM780, and in principle, can be adapted to fit most inverted microscopes.)] Using the dimensions of the slide holder stage insert for the Nikon A1R, the stretcher frame was modeled in 3D using Autodesk® Inventor® software
The Blynk IoT platform allows the building of an interface that controls the stretcher wirelessly through an application on android and IOS devices (Fig. S1A)
Summary
Cell biology has historically focused on chemical signaling as the way in which cells interact with their environment. We appreciate that the mechanical environment has important consequences for development and disease. Cells respond directly to their physical environment through a number of cellular changes that effect cell and tissue architecture and play a major role in determining cellular fate and function. The mechanical environment can drive the development of pluripotent cells into specific lineages (Engler et al, 2006). The nuclear envelope protein Lamin A plays an important role in promoting this mechanically driven differentiation (Swift et al, 2013)
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