Abstract
An experiment was carried out to investigate the morphological response of mechanically stimulated myoblasts that were cultured on a collagen-coated silicone ribbon and were subjected to tension for 6 hours. Images of the cells were taken by a CCD camera and input into a computer every 10 minutes for 8 hours. Both morphological change represented by a shape index (SI) and cumulative migration of the cells were measured every hour. An increase of the SI and decrease of the migration velocity were observed during tensile loading. Considering the cell structure, it is considered that hydrodynamic force of the cytosol would act on cytoskeletons due to the deformation of the cell. The fluid-structure interaction analysis was carried out to estimate the stress of the filament, where the actin filament and cytosol were modeled as an elastic cylinder and viscous fluid, respectively. The results of the calculation suggested that the rounding of the cell might not be caused by the break of the filament due to the hydrodynamic force.
