A New System for Cyclical Tensile Loading of Cultured Connective Tissue Cells in a Three-Dimensional Gel Matrix

Abstract

Cells can sense and respond to the mechanical load present in connective tissue. Cell shape has been correlated to the local mechanical environment in a variety of connective tissue cells [1,2], and cell deformation has been suggested as a mechanism to transduce tissue mechanical signals to the nucleus via the cytoskeleton [3,4]. Though many connective tissues are subjected to tensile loads, to date very limited investigations have been reported on the effect of tensile loads on the mechano-biology of isolated cells. To apply tensile loads to isolated connective tissue cells requires a three-dimensional (3D) matrix to maintain cell phenotype, and a highly elastic matrix to enable the large deformations that the cells experience in situ.