Effect of Contact between Myoblasts on Making Orientation of Cells under Shear Flow Field

Shigehiro Hashimoto, Michitaka Sakai, Hiroki Yonezawa, Yuji Endo

The effect of contact between cells on forming orientation of cells under the shear flow field has been investigated in vitro. To create a Couette type of the shear flow, the culture medium was sandwiched with a constant gap between parallel walls: a lower stationary culture disk, and an upper rotating disk. The wall shear stress (2 Pa) on the lower culture disk was controlled by the rotating speed of the upper disk. Myoblasts (C2C12: mouse myoblast cell line) were used in the test. After cultivation without flow for 24 hours for adhesion of cells on the lower plate, the constant wall shear stress was continuously applied on cells for 7 days in the incubator. The behavior of each cell was traced at the time-lapse images observed by an inverted phase contrast microscope placed in an incubator. The experimental results quantitatively show that increase of the contact region between cells affects forming perpendicular orientation of cells against the main flow direction.

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