Open AccessMEMS device for applying shear and tension to an epithelium combined with fluorescent live cell imaging
Author(s) -
Miguel Ángel García,
Ehsan Sadeghipour,
Leeya Engel,
W. James Nelson,
Beth L. Pruitt
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of micromechanics and microengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.494
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1361-6439
pISSN - 0960-1317
DOI - 10.1088/1361-6439/abb12c
Subject(s) - shear force , materials science , microelectromechanical systems , resistive touchscreen , ultimate tensile strength , biophysics , stiffness , shear (geology) , nanotechnology , chemistry , biomedical engineering , composite material , engineering , biology , electrical engineering
Mechanical forces play important roles in the biological function of cells and tissues. While numerous studies have probed the force response of cells and measured cell-generated forces, they have primarily focused on tensile, but not shear forces. Here, we describe the design, fabrication, and application of a silicon micromachined device that is capable of independently applying and sensing both tensile and shear forces in an epithelial cell monolayer. We integrated the device with an upright microscope to enable live cell brightfield and fluorescent imaging of cells over many hours following mechanical perturbation. Using devices of increasing stiffness and the same displacement input, we demonstrate that epithelia exhibit concomitant higher maximum resistive tensile forces and quicker force relaxation. In addition, we characterized the force response of the epithelium to cyclic shear loading. While the maximum resistive forces of epithelia under cyclic shear perturbation remained unchanged between cycles, cyclic loading led to faster relaxation of the resistive forces. The device presented here can be applied to studying the force response of other monolayer-forming cell types and is compatible with pharmacological perturbation of cell structures and functions.