A versatile shear and compression apparatus for mechanical stimulation of tissue culture explants.
We have developed an incubator housed, biaxial-tissue-loading device capable of applying axial deformations as small as 1 microm and sinusoidal rotations as small as 0.01 degrees. Axial resolution is 50 nm for applying sinewaves as low as 10 microm (or 1% based on a 1 mm thickness) or as large as 100 microm. Rotational resolution is 0.0005 degrees. The machine is small enough (30 cm high x 25 cm x 20 cm) to be placed in a standard incubator for long-term tissue culture loading studies. In metabolic studies described here, application of sinusoidal macroscopic shear deformation to articular cartilage explants resulted in a significant increase in the synthesis of proteoglycan and proteins (uptake of (35)S-sulfate and (3)H-proline) over controls held at the same static offset compression.
Continuum Electromechanics Group, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 38-377, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ehfrank@mit.edu
E H
EH
Frank
M
M
Jin
A M
AM
Loening
M E
ME
Levenston
A J
AJ
Grodzinsky
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D002417:Cattle; D046508:Culture Techniques; D004867:Equipment Design; D011392:Proline / Q000378:metabolism; D013431:Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism
D013431:Sulfates; D011392:Proline