Abstract
Here we propose a bioactuator using an insect dorsal vessel (heart muscle) tissue which can drive autonomously at room temperature for a long term. Living muscle cells have been attracted much interest as an actuator because a muscle tissue is totally superior to artificial muscles. Previously reported bioactuators using mammalian heart muscle cells require precise environmental control to keep cells alive and contracting. On the other hand, an insect tissue is robust compared to mammalian cells; they can grow at room temperature for a long term without medium replacement. In this paper, we succeeded in driving micropillars by the dorsal vessel tissue for more than 90 days. The strongest displacement was 23 [μm] . Based on the results of displacement, the driving force was estimated 4.7 [μN] . The definite displacements more than 10 [μm] were observed for 58 days from the 15th day to the 72nd day. Therefore, the life cycle can be calculated at 7.5×105 times as the average frequency was about 0.15 [Hz] . These results suggest that the insect heart tissue is more promising material for a bioactuator at room temperature compared with the other biological cell based actuators.
