First development of a LMHF vibration system for cell incubators

In cellular mechanobiology, the controlled application of vibrations plays a key role in investigating cell behavior and its response to mechanical stimuli. The study herein proposed focuses on the design, development, and testing of a low-magnitude high-frequency (LMHF) vibrating system optimized for cell incubators. The system is designed to operate within the controlled environment of cell incubators, i.e., at a temperature of 37 °C and relative humidity of 85 %. Moreover, the system is controlled from the outside in order not to compromise the heated environment of the incubator. A further advantage of the proposed device lies in the customized setting of vibration parameters (excitation amplitude and frequency) which allows the refinement and optimization of the experimental approach. In order to assess the metrological performance of the prototype first tests have been performed with an excitation amplitude of 3.5 ± 0.4 m•s-2 at 60 Hz. Results confirm that the developed system is stable throughout the tests, with an average maximum acceleration recorded of 3.3 ± 0.6 m•s-2.