Remodeling Muscle Cells by Inducing Mechanical Stimulus

A muscle cell actuator has been attracting a lot of attention since it is a key technology for realizing bio-machine hybrid systems. This study especially intend to deal with micro robot driven by real muscle cell actuators. To fabricate the actuator, we should study how to control cell aggregation for efficient power generation. This paper proposes a method for remodeling muscle cells by exploiting mechanical stimulus so that we can get an appropriate structure of the actuator. The experimental results demonstrate that the three factors, cell density, cell-matrix adhesion, and mechanical stimulation period, largely contribute to the remodeling of the muscle cells.