Mechano-Regulation Theory-based Finite Element Analysis on the Effects of Driving Strain History on Cellular Differentiation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate driving strain history of a dynamic cell culture device for inducing accelerated cell differentiation. Silicone rubber film is an electroactive polymer and was used as a flexible cell stimulator to transfer mechanical strains to developing cells. Mechano-regulation theory with a deviatoric strain was used to estimate tissue differentiation under strain conditions during iterative calculations by means of finite element analysis. Various driving strain histories comprising 4%, 5%, and 6% strains were introduced to determine the correlation between the strain history and the development of cell phenotypes. The simulation results revealed that driving strain conditions mainly comprising low levels of strain (4%) provided appropriate conditions for differentiating mesenchymal cells into osteoblasts.