Fig. 1.
Pneumatic microfluidic cell compression device. (a) The device has a 5×5 array of PDMS balloons with different diameters (D = 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 mm), and alginate-chondrocyte constructs are located on the PDMS balloons. (b) The constructs are compressed by the balloon inflated by pressurized air. (c) Image of an actual device (coin diameter = 19 mm). (d) Cross-sectional images of a chondrocyte before (left) and under (right) compression show that the cell was compressed by the device with a static compression (cell compressive strain, εcell = 16%).