Validating Mechanical Biaxial Stretch and Developing Image Calibration Methodology for Pulmonary Cell Models
O'Driscoll, Steven
O'Driscoll, Steven
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Abstract
Millions of people worldwide suffer from incurable chronic lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Due to the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, the number of people dependent on mechanical ventilators has rapidly grown. These events have highlighted the vast extent of patients dying due to insignificant pulmonary function, and raised questions as to whether there exists a better way to treat patients with mechanical ventilators. Currently, research on lung stretch is of extreme interest and numerous in vitro cell models have been developed that utilize commercialized cell stretch machines or custom-made devices. Characterization of stretching devices is paramount in ensuring findings can be directly compared to real world conditions. The FlexCell® FX-5000™ Tension System and a custom-made stretch machine were used to obtain images that were processed in ImageJ to calculate area increase. The goal of this work was to develop a methodology that would allow for the accurate quantification of biaxial stretch with both commercial and custom-made stretching devices in terms of percent area increase. The results support that although a machine may be calibrated, observed values are almost double that of the theoretical stretch applied to cells. This work presents an adaptable methodology that will help standardize and characterize cyclic mechanical stretch and enable researchers to better understand how to interpret their cell analyses.
Description
Undergraduate
Date
2021-01-01