Pneumatic Cell Stretching Chip to Generate Uniaxial Strain Using an Elastomeric Membrane with Ridge Structure

Cyclic mechanical stretching, including uniaxial strain, has been manifested to regulate the cell morphology and functions directly. In recent years, many techniques have developed apply cyclic stretching cells in vitro. Pneumatically actuated is one of extensively used methods owing its advantages integration, miniaturization, long-term stretching. However, intrinsic difficulty fabrication adjusting strain mode also impedes development application. this study, inspired by topological defects principle, we incorporated a ridge structure into membrane surface traditional pneumatic cavity chip mode. Our results showed that can directly change equiaxial standard it width-independent. The was further proved orientation behavior under stimulation. Moreover, easy realize multimodal fields controlling width height achieve high-throughput testing creating array using microfabrication. Together, propose smart method field introduce simple, yet effective, pneumatically platform, which not only stimulation but multiscale mechanosensing behaviors single-cell or multi-cell (tissue and/or organoid) mechanobiology applications.