A computational simulation of cyclic stretch of an individual stem cell using a nonlinear model.

Many experiments have shown that mechanical stimuli like cyclic strains might be helpful in stem cell differentiation. To maximize such differentiations efficiency, it is imperative to detect the cellular mechanical responses to these stimuli. The purpose of this research was to show that a newly presented hyper-viscoelastic model could correctly predict the level of stresses required to obtain a different response from a single mesenchymal stem cell cultured in a fibrin hydrogel block under a 10% cyclic strain at a frequency of 1 Hz, employing finite element method.