Applying dynamic mechanical forces to cells cultured in three-dimensional matrices

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Mechanical forces in the body cause tissues and cells to stretch, and these forces are now established to strongly influence tissue health and disease. Despite the known importance of these forces, the vast majority of cell culture experiments are conducted on static surfaces. Furthermore, most cells in the body exist within a three-dimensional matrix, which is known to significantly alter cell function as compared to culture on a two-dimensional surface. Culturing cells in physiologically-realistic environments is a growing area of research, and CellScale Biomaterials Testing makes tools and instruments to study how realistic mechanical forces affect cell function. However, three-dimensional culture experiments are extremely application-specific, and the handling requirements for these experiments vary broadly. Hence, it is challenging to develop a universally applicable method to apply mechanical forces to 3D cultures. The main goal of this project is to investigate the utility of microscale structures to anchor engineered tissues to a stretching platform. This approach would be compatible with existing injection molding manufacturing techniques, apply to a broad range of biomaterials, and will minimize any heterogeneous strain transfer affects that affect most other approaches to this challenge. If successful, this approach will greatly expand the utility and applicability of CellScale's existing platforms for mechanobiology, that are currently used in Canada and world-wide by both academia and industry for regenerative medicine, developmental biology and tissue engineering applications.