Mechanoinduction of reduction in the stiffness of zebrafish chorion

In this paper, we report our investigation on the force-induced responses of zebrafish chorion before and after being perturbed by an externally applied prescribed force. Our experimental results show that application of an external force leads to a reduction in the stiffness of the zebrafish chorion, and that variation in such a reduction is strongly influenced by the perturbation time. Our results provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that the stiffness of some cellular organism may be modified by the controlled application of an appropriate mechanical force, and demonstrate the potential of force-feedback control in micro/nano-manipulation as a promising engineering technique for studying disease properties and manipulating cellular biological functions.