Simulating microgravity using a random positioning machine for inducing cellular responses to mechanotransduction in human osteoblasts

The mechanotransduction pathways that mediate cellular responses to contact forces are better understood than those that mediate response to distance forces, especially the force of gravity. Removing or reducing gravity for significant periods of time involves either sending samples to space, inducing diamagnetic levitation with high magnetic fields, or continually reorienting samples for a period, all in a manner that supports cell culturing. Undesired secondary effects due to high magnetic fields or shear forces associated with fluid flow while reorienting must be considered in the design of ground-based devices. We have developed a lab-friendly and compact random positioning machine (RPM) that fits in a standard tissue culture incubator. Using a two-axis gimbal, it continually reorients samples in a manner that produces an equal likelihood that all possible orientations are visited. We contribute a new control algorithm by which the distribution of probabilities over all possible orientations is completely uniform. Rather than randomly varying gimbal axis speed and/or direction as in previous algorithms (which produces non-uniform probability distributions of orientation), we use inverse kinematics to follow a trajectory with a probability distribution of orientations that is uniform by construction. Over a time period of 6 h of operation using our RPM, the average gravity is within 0.001 23% of the gravity of Earth. Shear forces are minimized by limiting the angular speed of both gimbal motors to under 42 degrees/s. We demonstrate the utility of our RPM by investigating the effects of simulated microgravity on adherent human osteoblasts immediately after retrieving samples from our RPM. Cytoskeletal disruption and cell shape changes were observed relative to samples cultured in a 1 g environment. We also found that subjecting human osteoblasts in suspension to simulated microgravity resulted in less filamentous actin and lower cell stiffness. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.