Cardiac Muscle-cell Based Actuator and Self-stabilizing Biorobot - PART 1

Summary

In this two-part study, a biological actuator was developed using highly flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cantilevers and living muscle cells (cardiomyocytes), and characterized. The biological actuator was incorporated with a base made of modified PDMS materials to build a self-stabilizing, swimming biorobot.

Abstract

Biological machines often referred to as biorobots, are living cell- or tissue-based devices that are powered solely by the contractile activity of living components. Due to their inherent advantages, biorobots are gaining interest as alternatives to traditional fully artificial robots. Various studies have focused on harnessing the power of biological actuators, but only recently studies have quantitatively characterized the performance of biorobots and studied their geometry to enhance functionality and efficiency. Here, we demonstrate the development of a self-stabilizing swimming biorobot that can maintain its pitch, depth, and roll without external intervention. The design and fabrication of the PDMS scaffold for the biological actuator and biorobot followed by the functionalization with fibronectin is described in this first part. In the second part of this two-part article, we detail the incorporation of cardiomyocytes and characterize the biological actuator and biorobot function. Both incorporate a base and tail (cantilever) which produce fin-based propulsion. The tail is constructed with soft lithography techniques using PDMS and laser engraving. After incorporating the tail with the device base, it is functionalized with a cell adhesive protein and seeded confluently with cardiomyocytes. The base of the biological actuator consists of a solid PDMS block with a central glass bead (acts as a weight). The base of the biorobot consists of two composite PDMS materials, Ni-PDMS and microballoon-PDMS (MB-PDMS). The nickel powder (in Ni-PDMS) allows magnetic control of the biorobot during cells seeding and stability during locomotion. Microballoons (in MB-PDMS) decrease the density of MB-PDMS, and enable the biorobot to float and swim steadily. The use of these two materials with different mass densities, enabled precise control over the weight distribution to ensure a positive restoration force at any angle of the biorobot. This technique produces a magnetically controlled self-stabilizing swimming biorobot.

Introduction

Biological actuators and biorobots are being actively studied to provide an alternative to conventional robotics for numerous applications. Biorobots that walk^5,6,7,8, swim^1,2,3,4, pump^9,10, or grip^11,12,13 have already been developed. Similarly, muscle ....

Protocol

1. Calculate Mass of PDMS and Additives

1. Use the following equation to find the mass of PDMS needed for specific heights in the following procedures,
   M = ϱ*V = ϱ * Height*Area          (1),
   where 'Height' is the height of the layer, 'Area' is the area of a container that the PDMS will be cured in, 'ϱ' is the density of the mixture and 'V' is the volume.
   NOTE: Densities for height calculations are PDMS = 0.965 g/mL, Ni-PDMS = 1.639 g/mL, MB-PDMS = 0.648 g/mL.
2. Use equation (1) to estimate the mass of PDMS needed, for a given container, to obtain a specific height (5 mm) for the base of the biological actuator. The resulting density of....

Results

The biological actuator and biorobot have very similar fabrication processes, as the biorobot is a natural extension of the biological actuator (Figure 1). The biological actuator was developed first to establish techniques required for the biorobot, to analyze the force generated by the cells, and to characterize the cell maturation mechanically and biochemically, both of which are described in detail in Part 2 of this two-part article as well as in our recently publishe.......

Discussion

Various locomotion mechanisms can be found among aquatic swimmers¹⁶. The locomotion mechanism of the biorobot in this study uses fin-based locomotion, specifically ostraciiform locomotion. Ostraciiform swimmers propel themselves by wagging a tail (cantilever) and having a rigid body (layered base)¹⁶. Fish such as the boxfish and cowfish use this type of locomotion. Ostraciiform swimmers are typically slow and have inefficient body dimensions. Although ostraciiform swimming .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)	Dow Corning	184 sil elast kit  0.5kg	Sylgard 184
Nickel Powder	Sigma-Aldrich	266981-100G
Phenolic microballoons	US Composites	BJO-0930
Silicon wafers			4 inch diameter
PWM101 light-duty spinner			Spin- coater
Positive photoresist (S1808)	Dow Corning	DEM-10018197
Hotplate
Vacuum chamber
M206 mechanical convection oven			Convection oven
Laser engraver	Universal Laser System	VLS2.30	Utilizes a 10 W, 10.6 µm wavelength, CO2 Laser
Universal Laser Systems Application	Universal Laser System		Application for running the VLS 2.30
Matlab	MathWorks		Numerical analysis program
Scotch Tape	Scotch Brand
Solid-glass beads	Sigma-Aldrich	Z265926-1EA	Soda-lime glass, diameter 3 mm
Scale	Mettler Toledo	EL303
BD-20AC Laboratory Corona Treater	Electrotechnic Products	12051A	Corona Discharger
Ultrasonic Bath 1.9 L	Fisher Scientific	15-337-402	40 kHz industrial transducer
Fibronectin from bovine plasma	Sigma-Aldrich	F1141
Dulbecco’s Phosphate Buffer (PBS)	Sigma-Aldrich	D1408-100ML
Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM)	Hyclone Laboratories	16750-074	With 4500 mg/L glucose, 4.0 mM L-glutamine, and 110 mg/L sodium pyruvate.
Fetalclone III serum	Hyclone Industries, GE	16777-240	Fetal bovine serum
Penicillin-G sodium salt	Sigma-Aldrich	P3032