Muscle cell-driven tube shaped bioactuator stimulated by Arch-type Muscle Cell Stretching System

A new micro bioactuator was proposed which has a circular truncated cone tube shape and is made of a PDMS sheet covered with a muscle cell sheet. This bioactuator is driven by the contractile force of the muscle cell sheet without an electrical source. For the realization of the bioactuator, we developed the arch-type muscle cell stretching system. This system stretches cells in the circumferential direction in contrast to a conventional system. Thus, the generative force of muscle cells is raised and the muscle cells are oriented uniformly in the most effective direction to transmit their contraction force to the PDMS sheet. The muscle cells are cultured on the thin PDMS sheet and elongated and contracted by using an external magnetic field as driving source. We successfully cultured cells in a totally non-contaminated environment with the system. We also conducted a experiment using cultured skeletal myoblast and observed the change in cell orientation.