Newly designed tensile test system for in vitro measurement of mechanical properties of cytoskeletal filaments

A tensile test system for isolated cytoskeletal filaments, which enables to control strain rate, was newly designed. A pair of piezo-driven cantilevers were used to manipulate the specimen and to measure tensile load from the deflection of one of the cantilevers. The displacements of the cantilevers were optically and electrically detected. The specimen strain, determined from the cantilever displacements, was used as a feedback signal. We proposed a servo-system for strain rate control in which a desired path for the strain transition was designated. The path was chosen as a triangular-shape waveform against time, along which the strain rate is kept constant. We measured tensile properties of a single stress fiber isolated from a smooth muscle cell with this system to obtain a stretching stiffness of 45 nN per strain. Performance evaluation and the tensile test demonstrated that the system enabled to carry out strain rate-controlled tensile test.