The development of the cell culture system able to change the elasticity of control substrate

Abstract

The effects of mechanical properties of the culture substrate on the cellular behavior are intensively investigated. However, most of the studies adjusted the elastic modulus of culture substrates by changing the substrate component concentration. In this study, we take the advantage of the nonlinear mechanical properties of porcine amniotic membrane to realize the sole adjustment of substrate elastic modulus by stretching the membrane at different stresses in a lab-made device. Fibroblasts were able to attach and proliferate nearly to confluence on the membrane (~500 cells/mm2 ) under low stress (elastic modulus smaller than 30.0 kPa); whereas, the cells failed to attach on the membrane under high stress (elastic modulus ~ 6.0 MPa). It implicates that the dynamic characteristics of the amniotic membrane related with the device structure may also impact the cellular behavior because the elastic modulus of conventional culture dishes (~GPa) is much greater than 6.0 MPa.