Mechanically Stressed Cells under the Microscope

Traumatic brain injury, skin scarring, or fibrotic heart remodeling are examples for mechanical stress which cells and tissues are exposed to. In this article, the authors introduce a non-invasive, mechanical cellular stimulation setup to mimic mechanical stress in the lab. The system is based on magnetic fields which affect magnetorheological elastomers upon which cells were cultivated. To fulfill the special demands, a DM6 B microscope with ceramic, non-ferromagnetic objectives and a non-ferromagnetic Okolab incubation system was used achieving >3-day live-cell imaging.