The Study of the Frequency Effect of Dynamic Compressive Loading on Primary Articular Chondrocyte Functions Using a Microcell Culture System
Figure 1
(a) Schematic illustration of the pneumatically-driven compressive loading mechanism: (I) the rest state and (II) the pneumatically-driven deformation of an elastic PDMS membrane leading to the vertical movement of the connected micropillar that in turn generates compressive loading onto the 3D cell culture construct below (cross-sectional view) (a video clip is provided as a Supplementary Material available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/762570), and (b) the photograph of the microcell culture system, and the schematic illustration of overall experimental setup (EMV: electromagnetic valves; ITO: indium tin oxide).
