Cell Fatigue Test

A new concept of “Cell Fatigue Test” is proposed. By reciprocating a cell across the throat of a micro channel repeatedly, the dynamic behavior of cell deformation is measured. We define a new index of fatigue life of cells as the number of reciprocatory motions leading to the prescribed recovery ratio. The test system is composed of a piezoelectric (PZT) actuator, a high speed vision sensor and a micro channel with a throat. Preliminary experiments were conducted by using Red Blood Cells (RBCs). The result shows that there is great variability in fatigue life of cells and the hues of cell membrane drastically change as the number of stress cycles increase.