Development of an improved injury device for neural cell cultures.

Traumatic Brain Injury is hypothesized to occur as a function of the strain and strain rate experienced by neural tissues during a traumatic event. In vitro studies of TBI at the cellular level have used a variety of methods to subject neural cell cultures to potentially injurious strains and strain rates. A device used in previous investigations of neural cell injury was limited in its ability to control strain and strain rate independently or simulate quick repetitive loading. Here we present the design of an improved cell injury controller based on an experimental setup previously used. The new device has the ability to independently control strain and strain rate and can strain cell cultures grown on a stretchable membrane from 0.1 to 0.60 at rates up to 25 s-1.