Remotely activated, vibrational magnetoelastic array system for controlling cell adhesion

A new system was designed to selectively control cellular adhesion to medical implants. The system is based on magnetoelastic (ME) materials that can be remotely set to generate mechanical vibrations at submicron levels with predetermined amplitude and frequency. Previous studies have demonstrated the capacity of these vibrations to control cellular adhesion at a substrate surface. In this work, an ME film with two conjoined strips was developed to investigate the potential of this system to provide region specific control of cellular adhesion. In vitro cell culture experiments performed with L929 fibroblasts indicate that cellular adhesion can be increased or decreased at different regions of the film by changing the frequency of the magnetic field.