Cell stretcher based on single-crystal bimorph piezoelectric actuators

Biomechanical studies of stretched cells are important for understanding of mechanisms and reactions driving muscle contraction, migration of cells, processes in cytoskeleton etc. Several methods for stretching cells are available today. The simplest of them consists in a uniaxial expansion of a flexible substrate with a cell culture by a stepper motor. More complex methods include incubating cells with protein-coated superparamagnetic beads with subsequent use of a needle-shaped core of an electromagnet and utilizing substrates with stress-sensitive fluorescent markers [1, 2]. These methods allow stretching an entire cell culture, thus working with isolated cells is difficult. There is also a tool on the market produced by IonOptix, USA which can be utilized for stretching single cardiac myocytes [3], however, this equipment is expensive and not always appropriate for use with complex systems such as scanning ion conductance microscopes (SICM).