Figure 1.

Development of astrocyte living scaffolds via stretch-growth. (A) Astrocytes were plated in a custom-built mechanobioreactor attached to (B) A micro-stepper motor in order to apply controlled mechanical tension. (C) The cells were plated along the interface of two overlapping transparent membranes: a stationary membrane and a towing membrane (outlined with red box). The towing membrane was attached to a block at its original position, then was gradually pulled back as the driving rods were pulled by the micro-stepper motor attached to them. As the towing membrane was pulled back at the desired rate, the network of processes that had formed in static culture were stretched, due to the applied tension. This resulted in long, aligned processes