PDMS Cantilever Integrated with Metal Wrinkles to Measure Contractile Behaviours of Matured Cardiac Cells

The surface topography plays crucial role for controlling the variety of cell growing behavior, including corneal, epithelial and skeletal and cardiac muscle cells. In this paper, we describe a new idea to from regular microgrooves patterns (wrinkles) on a highly flexible PDMS cantilever using a mechanical stress of metallic thin films. The geometric dimensions and direction of metal wrinkles on the cantilever were optimized by controlling of process conditions (pre-stretching and deposition). The displacement of the PDMS cantilever was greatly improved due to the alignment of the cardiac cells growing along the wrinkles. Based on the basic experiments, we confirmed that the highly sensitive cantilever-based sensor can accurately monitor the changes in cardiac contractility and beating duration with various concentration of drugs. The suggested strategy is effectively reducing process steps in the cantilever fabrication and it is excellent route for analysis of mechanical response of cardiac cell with preliminary drug toxicity screening.