Various techniques have been developed for studying cell response induced by mechanical stress such as modulating its structure or gene expression. However, conventional techniques and devices cannot load mechanical stress including high-frequency component of kHz to MHz expected to act greatly on cells because of their viscoelastic properties and induce unknown effects. Here we have developed an impulsive stimulation loading system which enables to push the cultured cells with a short duration. Requirements for the system are that loading time of stimulation is 1 μs to 100 μs and displacement imparted to cell is 1 nm to 1 μm. For generating high speed displacement, we drive a cantilever by irradiating nanosecond laser pulse. The displacement was measured by optical lever system with 25 nm and 2 ns resolution. In evaluation experiment, the cantilever was displaced over 1 μm with 4 μs, which meets the requirements.
