Mechanobiology

Increased hemodynamic load on the heart causes cardiac hypertrophy and develops into heart failure. Still, there are many unclear points in the mechanobiological mechanisms leading to heart failure. To clarify these points, we have been investigating the differences of mechanical stress response between cardiomyocytes differentiated from iPS cells from healthy people and those from heart disease patients. However, the appropriate strength of the stretching stimulus to be applied is unknown. Also, when analyzing the mechanical stress response, it is useful to record the historical data of the load on cardiomyocytes or morphology in real-time and link those data with gene expression information obtained after stretching. Therefore, we developed a cell stretching system capable of applying multiple strain ratios and real-time observation. Multiple strain range of 4-12% was realized by changing the well width and stretch displacement. We demonstrated real-time observation of iPS cardiomyocytes being stretched three days after seeding.