Isotonic biaxial loading of fibroblast-populated collagen gels: a versatile, low-cost system for the study of mechanobiology |
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Authors: | V Knezevic A J Sim T K Borg J W Holmes |
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Institution: | (1) ETM 351/MC 8904, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, 1210 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027, USA e-mail: jh553@columbia.edu Tel.: +1-212-8546530; Fax: +1-212-8548725, US;(2) Department of Developmental Biology and Anatomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA, US |
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Abstract: | We developed a simple, versatile system for applying a range of biaxial loads to cell–matrix constructs for the study of
mechanobiology. The system consists of porous polyethylene bars that are polymerized into a square fibroblast-populated gel
and loaded by freely hanging weights attached to sutures routed through a custom loading rig. The cost to manufacture each
mold/loading rig pair was less than US $250 and the expected life of the components is up to 10 years. Neonatal and adult
cardiac fibroblasts contracted gels to a decreasing extent as external load was increased (P=0.003) and achieved contraction forces of up to 1.4 mN per million cells. Strain distributions were reasonably homogeneous
in the central region of the gel (25% of gel area), but clearly nonhomogeneous outside that central region. The primary advantages
of this system are simplicity, low cost, biaxial loading, and the ability to test for a dose–response effect of mechanical
load. The current disadvantages are the inability to apply cycling loading and the inhomogeneities introduced by the use of
rigid loading bars.
Received: 15 November 2001 / Accepted: 30 January 2002 |
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