Fabrication of a dynamic compression stimulus microdevice to cells for evaluating real-time cellular response

This paper presents a microdevice intended to evaluate the real-time response of cells to compression stimulus for dynamic cell differentiation induction. This device was realized by the micro three-dimensional structure fabrication process using multiple exposures to photoresist. The microdevice consists of microchannels, a pressure inlet port, cell culture chambers and a diaphragm on the culture chamber for applying compressive pressure to cells. Compression stimulus to cells can be controlled by regulating of the diaphragm expansion with the pressure control. This device can make it to observe the behavior of cellular response stimulated by compressive pressure because this device is made of transparency materials and stimulates the cells without deforming the cell culture surface observed by an optical microscope. We demonstrated the validity of the fabrication process, and evaluated the performance of the test device. As a result of operation test, the diaphragm was deformed quickly by applied negative/positive pressure, and the diaphragm displacement became larger with increasing of the applied pressure. These results indicate that this device can control the intensity and the profile of cell stimulus by regulating the applied pressure.