Development of a Uniaxial Cyclic Stretch Apparatus for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

A uniaxial cyclic stretch apparatus is designed and developed for tissue engineering research. The biostretch apparatus employs non-contact electromagnetic force to uniaxial stretch a rectangular Gelfoam® or RTV silicon scaffold. A reliable controller is implemented to independently control four stretch parameters: strength, frequency, pattern, and duration of the stretch time. The non-contact driving force and the specially designed mounting tray allow researchers to use standard Petri dishes and commercially available CO2 incubators to culture an engineered tissue patch with mechanical stimulus. The apparatus greatly simplifies the culture process over existing biostretch apparatuses. Further, unlike traditional uniaxial stretch apparatuses, which normally fix one side and stretch other side, the new biostretch apparatus can also apply uniaxial stretch from both ends simultaneously. Using the biostretch apparatus, the distribution of strain on the Gelfoam® and GE RTV 6166 silicon scaffold is quantitatively analyzed.