Dynamic Movement of a Single Cell at the Bottom of a Flow Chamber

In this study, fluid-structure interaction method and nonlinear deformation as well computational fluid dynamics computation was used to analyze the dynamic motion of a single cell cultured in rectangular chamber. Due to the influence of gravity, the cells moved slowly toward the bottom of the flow chamber, and it was found that cells did not directly hit the bottom during the process of descending, in contrast, the cells rebound at a certain distance from the bottom, which was designated as cell jumping phenomenon. When the cells rebound to a certain level of height, they began to move toward to bottom of chamber and then jump again. This cell jumping phenomenon occurred repeatedly and each cycle of descending and ascending was similar. When the cell movement suddenly changed, the force acting on the cells and the speed of the cells were altered in an oscillating manner. The results provide a quantitative assessment of the relationship between micro-mechanics environment and cells in vitro.