High-speed mechano-active multielectrode array for investigating rapid stretch effects on cardiac tissue

Imboden, Matthias; Coulon, Etienne de; Poulin, Alexandre; Dellenbach, Christian; Rosset, Samuel; Shea, Herbert; Rohr, Stephan

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08757-2

Cited by 53 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Indeed, the main field is confined within the actuation membrane, whilst the fringe field is not expected to impact the cell culture, due to the geometry of the device. In any case, it is useful to consider that previous studies on DEA-based cell stretchers, which have exposed cells to high fringe fields, have not obtained evidence of any effect on cellular (cardiomyocytes) viability (Imboden et al, 2019).…”

Section: Future Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, within the family of electromechanically active polymers (Carpi, 2016), dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) at present can in general offer large strains (10-100%) and relatively high stresses (up to 1 MPa) in response electrical stimuli, with simple structure, compact size, light weight, and low power consumption (Pelrine et al, 2000;Carpi et al, 2008). Due to these attractive properties, their potential also for the mechano-stimulation of cells has recently been explored (Akbari and Shea, 2012a,b;Cei et al, 2016;Poulin et al, 2016Poulin et al, , 2018Imboden et al, 2019). However, so far, they have been used for cell stretching of planar (uni-or bi-directional, or radial) and uniform kind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bioreactor With Electrically Deformable Curved Membranes for Mechanical Stimulation of Cell Cultures

Costa

Ghilardi

Mamone

et al. 2020

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Physiologically relevant in vitro models of stretchable biological tissues, such as muscle, lung, cardiac and gastro-intestinal tissues, should mimic the mechanical cues which cells are exposed to in their dynamic microenvironment in vivo. In particular, in order to mimic the mechanical stimulation of tissues in a physiologically relevant manner, cell stretching is often desirable on surfaces with dynamically controllable curvature. Here, we present a device that can deform cell culture membranes without the current need for external pneumatic/fluidic or electrical motors, which typically make the systems bulky and difficult to operate. We describe a modular device that uses elastomeric membranes, which can intrinsically be deformed by electrical means, producing a dynamically tuneable curvature. This approach leads to compact, selfcontained, lightweight and versatile bioreactors, not requiring any additional mechanical equipment. This was obtained via a special type of dielectric elastomer actuator. The structure, operation and performance of early prototypes are described, showing preliminary evidence on their ability to induce changes on the spatial arrangement of the cytoskeleton of fibroblasts dynamically stretched for 8 h.

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Section: Future Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioreactor With Electrically Deformable Curved Membranes for Mechanical Stimulation of Cell Cultures

Costa

Ghilardi

Mamone

et al. 2020

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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show abstract

“…With further processing, these planar structures can be transformed into bending actuators, rolled actuators, or prestrained systems using rigid frames . For many applications of interest, contractile actuation is advantageous . Yet prestrained DEAs provide contractile strains in only a small proportion of the total device area .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing of Interdigitated Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Chortos

Hajiesmaili

Morales

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

151

128

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are soft electromechanical devices that exhibit large energy densities and fast actuation rates. They are typically produced by planar methods and, thus, expand in-plane when actuated. Here, reported is a method for fabricating 3D interdigitated DEAs that exhibit in-plane contractile actuation modes. First, a conductive elastomer ink is created with the desired rheology needed for printing high-fidelity, interdigitated electrodes. Upon curing, the electrodes are then encapsulated in a self-healing dielectric matrix composed of a plasticized, chemically crosslinked polyurethane acrylate. 3D DEA devices are fabricated with tunable mechanical properties that exhibit breakdown fields of 25 V µm −1 and actuation strains of up to 9%. As exemplars, printed are prestrainfree rotational actuators and multi-voxel DEAs with orthogonal actuation directions in large-area, out-of-plane motifs.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201907375.cycling and breakdown behavior [33][34][35] and the presence of a rigid frame limits the geometries that can be achieved. [24,36] Recent attention has been directed toward developing approaches that enable contractile displacements in prestrain-free DEAs, including manual and automated stacking of individual planar layers [37] or sequential deposition of active materials via inkjet printing [38] and spray coating. [39] The fabrication of contractile actuators with vertically oriented electrodes offers a more promising approach (Figure 1b). While arrays of vertical electrodes can be patterned lithographically, new masks must be generated for each device design. [40][41][42] By contrast, 3D printing enables the rapid design and fabrication of soft materials in nearly arbitrary geometries. [43][44][45][46][47] For example, direct ink writing (DIW), an extrusion-based 3D printing method, has been used to pattern soft functional materials, including sensors, [48] stretchable electronics, [49] liquid crystalline elastomers, [50] and soft robots. [51,52] While this method has recently been used to print DEAs, they do not exhibit an in-plane contractile response. [52][53][54] Here, we create 3D DEAs composed of interdigitated vertical electrodes that are printed, cured, and encapsulated in an insulating dielectric matrix (Figure 1c). These prestrain-free contractile DEAs can be produced in nearly arbitrary geometries. During their actuation, the stress generated is given by σ = ε 0 ε r (E) 2 , where ε 0 is the vacuum permittivity, ε r is the dielectric constant, and E is the electric field. For small strains, the actuation strain (s z ) is s z = σ/E Y = ε 0 ε r (E) 2 /E Y , where E Y is the Young's modulus. Their actuation performance is therefore maximized by increasing the breakdown field and dielectric constant, while simultaneously reducing the elastic modulus of the matrix. Since variations in the dielectric thickness can cause localization of the electric field that results in p...

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“…In 2018, the actuator that can generate alternately tensile and compression strains was proposed by Poulin et al [78]. Afterward, as the newest work, for the purpose of investigating drastic cases like rapid stretch effect on cardiac tissue, Imboden et al [85] showed their high-speed mechano-active multielectrode actuator, which can provide stimulus of mechanoelectrical coupling mechanism. Such a progress actually indicates the diversified future of the DEA-based bioreactor.…”

Section: Dea-based Bioreactor For Small Population Of Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%