Fig. 1.

Measurement of mechanically gated currents. A: preparation schematic. Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMCs) are plated onto collagen I-coated elastomeric membranes. A VSMC is oriented longitudinally between 2 stretching arms and configured with a whole cell patch. A computer-controlled pressure generator generates a pressure pulse to drive the microrobotic stretching arms out and away from the VSMC poles. Elastomer stretch, in turn, stretches the overlaying VSMC. B: series of pictures of the stretching arms at baseline (top), during stretch (middle), and following recovery (bottom) from stretch. Note that the 2 arms move an equal distance in the opposite direction and return to their original position following release. Solid white lines identify the location of the stretching arms at top. Dashed white lines identify the position of the stretching arms during stretch. C: mean relationship between the driving pressure and elastomer stretch. This graph demonstrates the increases in driving pressure produce proportional increases in elastomer stretch and is highly repeatable among samples. Substrate length increases ∼11% at 60 mmHg and ∼20% at 120 mmHg.