MIT engineers designed a workout mat for cells that can help scientists zero in, at the microscopic level, on exercise’s mechanical effects. The results suggest regular exercise can help muscle fibers grow in the same direction. Credit: Ella Marushchenko
Key points:
- Researchers designed a hydrogel workout mat embedded with magnets to determine the mechanical effects of exercise on muscle cells.
- Compared with control cells, muscle cells regularly exposed to mechanical motion grew longer, stayed circular in shape, and contracted in sync.
- The vibrating workout mat technology can be useful for growing artificial muscles, determining the effects of injury or aging, and testing therapies for neuromuscular diseases.
MIT researchers designed a workout mat for cells that can determine the mechanical effects of exercise. Their vibrating platform, described in Device, can be useful for growing artificial muscles and testing therapies for neuromuscular diseases.
Researchers grew a carpet of muscle cells on the surface of a mat that featured a hydrogel material embedded with magnetic microparticles. The team developed these magnets by mixing commercially available magnetic nanoparticles with a rubbery silicone solution in a slab that could be sliced into thin bars and sandwiched between two layers of hydrogel. On the hydrogel surface, each cell began as a circular shape and gradually elongated and fused with neighboring cells to form fibers.
Using an external magnet that was programmed to move back and forth beneath the mat, researchers moved the embedded particles to wobble the gel. By controlling the frequency of the wobbling, the research team mimicked the forces that muscles experience during actual exercise. The team mechanically “exercised” the cells for 30 minutes a day for 10 days.
Compared with cells that were not exercised, muscle cells regularly exposed to mechanical motion grew longer and tended to stay circular in shape. Additionally, researchers found that regular mechanical exercise helped muscle fibers align so that they contract in sync.
The new workout mat, called Magnetic Matrix Actuation or MagMA, serves as a quick and noninvasive way to shape muscle fibers and study their response to exercise. Looking ahead, the team plans to grow other cell types on the gel to study how they respond to exercise.
“We hope to use this new platform to see whether mechanical stimulation could help guide muscle regrowth after injury or lessen the effects of aging,” said study author Rita Raman of MIT. “Mechanical forces play a really important role in our bodies and lived environment and now we have a tool to study that."