Refine
Year of publication
Institute
Has Fulltext
- no (102) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (85)
- Report (5)
- Part of a Book (4)
- Book (3)
- Conference Proceeding (2)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
- Habilitation (1)
- Patent (1)
Keywords
- CellDrum (3)
- Bladder (1)
- Cardiac myocytes (1)
- Cell permeability (1)
- Cellular force (1)
- Circular Dichroism (1)
- Contractile tension (1)
- Endothelial cells (1)
- Growth modelling (1)
- Heart tissue culture (1)
Advances in polymer science have significantly increased polymer applications in life sciences. We report the use of free-standing, ultra-thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes, called CellDrum, as cell culture substrates for an in vitro wound model. Dermal fibroblast monolayers from 28- and 88-year-old donors were cultured on CellDrums. By using stainless steel balls, circular cell-free areas were created in the cell layer (wounding). Sinusoidal strain of 1 Hz, 5% strain, was applied to membranes for 30 min in 4 sessions. The gap circumference and closure rate of un-stretched samples (controls) and stretched samples were monitored over 4 days to investigate the effects of donor age and mechanical strain on wound closure. A significant decrease in gap circumference and an increase in gap closure rate were observed in trained samples from younger donors and control samples from older donors. In contrast, a significant decrease in gap closure rate and an increase in wound circumference were observed in the trained samples from older donors. Through these results, we propose the model of a cell monolayer on stretchable CellDrums as a practical tool for wound healing research. The combination of biomechanical cell loading in conjunction with analyses such as gene/protein expression seems promising beyond the scope published here.