Effects of Cyclic Stretch on Cell Proliferation in Culture Models of Wounds

Cyclic stretch stimulations are known to affect blood flow to the wound-bed and to enhance cell migration and proliferation, which contributes to tissue repair. Our aim is to evaluate the influence of different radial stretching amplitudes and wave shapes (deformation versus time) of dynamic substrate strains on proliferation of cells en mass, in culture models of a wound-bed. In order to evaluate the influence of dynamic cell stretching as above, we developed an apparatus for applying controlled dynamic tensile strains to cell culture substrata. To demonstrate the function and research potential of this dynamic cell stretching system, 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes were cultured and monitored for 5 days. Digital images documenting the cells were captured and processed through a Matlab code. We compared measures such as digitally calculated cell confluency for the dynamically stretched cultures, as opposed to those of statically stretched and non-stretched control cultures. We demonstrate the effect of the stretching regime on cell proliferation in this system, which facilitates objective, standardized quantification of the effect of the stretch profile (magnitude and wave shape) on proliferation of the cell population.