Miniaturized stimulator for imaging of live cell responses to high frequency mechanical vibration

Abstract

<p> Cellular mechanobiology is highly important for tissue development and disease formation. However, lack of proper tools limit investigation of the cellular responses to different mechanical cues. High frequency (HF) vibration has already been applied in different cellular applications, but the knowledge of the stimulation effect on cells is limited. To meet this challenge, we designed a HF vibration stimulator for combined mechanical manipulation of live cells and high-resolution light-microscopy. Our system utilizes a commercial miniaturized speaker to vibrate a 3D printed sample vehicle horizontally. Technical tests demonstrated excellent performance at lower frequencies (30–60 Hz), enabling even high magnitude (HMHF, G<sub>peak</sub> ≥ 1 G<sub>peak</sub> ) method. Real-time acceleration measurement and light-microscopy both revealed accurately and precisely produced low magnitude (LMHF, G<sub>peak</sub> < 1 G<sub>peak</sub> ) vibrations. With our system, we could observe cellular responses to the LMHF (0.2 G<sub>peak</sub> , 30 Hz) vibration. In this paper, we introduce an inexpensive stimulation platform for the mechanobiology research of different cell applications. </p>